UK Bicycle Association to introduce e-bike battery recycling
The UK-based Bicycle Association has announced plans to set up a nationwide electric bike battery collection and recycling service, expecting significant sales growth of electric bikes in the coming years.
Following a detailed tender process, the Bicycle Association appointed the European Recycling Platform UK (ERP UK) as its partner to set up and accommodate this programme. The final form of the venture has not been decided yet. However, the partners plan to launch a trial programme “shortly”. The learnings from this are then to contribute to a national rollout “later this year”.
“With millions of electric bike sales ahead of us, this is an exciting initiative that will make it easy for retailers to safely store faulty and expired batteries in one fireproof rated drum – with one phone call when full to get it swapped out. With the support of electric bike producers, we hope to provide a national network of hundreds of collection points convenient for customers,” says Stephen Holt, Bicycle Association Retail Trade Manager.
John Redmayne, Managing Director of ERP UK, said, they were “delighted” to become a partner in developing a battery collection service for the sector. “With growing numbers of e-bikes in use, the need for the sector to safely and responsibly deal with end of life batteries has been highlighted.”
In other European markets, similar collection programmes are running, with e-bike manufacturers participating along with retailers who act as collection points for the public. The perceived benefits of such a programme are simplicity at the retail level, reduced cost and complexity for bike companies and a clear and convenient way for customers to return batteries.
0 Comments