It’s good to be back with you following our Easter break last week.

How did that traditionally crucial, kick-start to the season fare for your business? I’ve been hearing dealer and manufacturer alike bemoan how this year everything has been incredibly slow to get moving. Dealers who have spent the past few years desperately short of stock, are in some cases now finding themselves stuffed to the rafters with certain products that they simply haven’t been able to shift since taking delivery.

And whilst we can be quick to blame Brexit, the cost-of-living crisis or the war in Ukraine for the lack of consumer purchasing, it’s that old perennial the weather who I think most would lay the blame on for not playing ball. Conditions simply have not been conducive, certainly for domestic customers, to get out into their green spaces and tend their environment.

So how did last weekend work out? I believe most of the country experienced a few lovely warm, sunny days and a couple of constant downpour days. So, a proper mixed bag. Was that what the buying pubich needed to get their machinery out of the shed? Or was it still not quite the right conditions? Let us know how it was for you in the comments below.

Battery disposal

If sales were made to homeowners, chances are that a decent proporion of those were battery-powered machines. Over the last 10 or so years, these cordless products have boomed in popularity with consumers. When we first started talking about them in depth in the pages of our magazine, there was a section of the network who were quite wary of the impact the technology would have on their business. The phrase I remember being used by more than one dealer was that battery tools were the ‘death knell’ for the industry.

I think we’ve moved beyond those kind of views now, with battery machinery an everyday part of a dealership’s offering. However, a problem that has arisen, that as yet no one appears to have a definitive solution for, is what to do with spent batteries at their end of life?

We discussed in this Update a few weeks back, a possible breakthrough in the disposal of batteries that has been discovered by scientists at Linnaeus University in Sweden. However, as it stands, that exists only as a theoretical solution, potentially for some time in the future. 

But what happens now? What are dealers to do with the volume of used batteries being returned to them by customers? Whose responsibility are they for their ultimate safe disposal / recycling? The customer? The dealer? The manufacturer / supplier?

I was contacted by dealer Nigel Barnes of Moggs of Wells (Engineering) Ltd in Shepton Mallet recently who told me he feels the industry needs a definitive statement regarding what should be done with spent lithium-ion batteries.

Nigel said, “Whilst our local vehicle dismantlers are quite happy to take complete machines for scrap and conventional lead-acid batteries, they will not accept lithium-ion batteries. I suspect the local community recycling centre would take the same view, but we don’t go there because we are seen as having commercial waste for disposal.

“This reluctance to accept certain items for recycling will only increase fly-tipping by the unscrupulous, and there is already far too much litter lining roadside verges as it is.”

Nigel continued, saying that his understanding regarding lithium-ion batteries for disposal, is that the manufacturers and importers are ultimately responsible. “I have asked several of our suppliers about this,” Nigel told me, “and generally received a blank look or a wall of silence. 

“If it is in fact the case that the manufacturers and importers are responsible, they should have systems in place for such recycling.”

Understandably Nigel - and I’m sure dealers across the country reading this today - is keen for a conclusive directive, offering guidance as to what is the correct course of action to take.

Nigel also spoke about the procedures involved in sending used batteries back to manufacturers and suppliers to deal with, bearing in mind the hazardous nature of the material and observing the carriers’ health and safety requirements. “There would obviously be a cost to us for such carriage via the courier services,” he said, “of which, as far as I can see, only UPS seem to have any proper hazardous cargo documented procedures.”

Nigel concluded, “From my experience these lithium ion batteries fail quite frequently, so there must be a lot of them out there requiring safe disposal. Let’s take some definite action please, otherwise the waste is only going to turn up on some consumer affairs programme, illegally tipped or buried, and with the consequential bad publicity we can all do without. That’s before considering cobalt poisoning, hydrogen cyanide gas and other life threatening by-products that can emanate from disused lithium ion batteries.”

Strong, wise words from Nigel and I thank him for getting in touch to highlight this issue so eloquently.

I spoke to a manufacturer just recently who told me they had a pile of batteries at their premises, that had been moved around from place to place, endeavouring to keep it safe, whilst they worked out what to do with them. So it’s clearly a real problem for all.

We would appriciate hearing from industry members today with their thoughts and experiences regarding the disposal of used lithium-ion batteries. I’m not sure we’ll have anyone who can offer a definitive answer to the situation, because I’m not sure anyone has one? Which frankly, is a huge problem.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts below this article, or if you’d prefer to share anything anonymously, drop me a line in confidence.

It would be great to build up a picture of the situation out there, which we could then cover in an upcoming issue of Service Dealer magazine.

Thanks in advance for your help.