Used oil at €210/tonne and batteries at €550: the money being thrown away

They pay 550 euros a tonne for used batteries and you hand them over for free at the garage

From 16 to 30 November 2013, the plant that Sertego Servicios Medioambientales runs in Teruel paid for the recyclable waste brought in by private individuals and businesses: 210 euros per tonne of used oil and 550 euros per tonne of lead batteries. The company itself announced this in a commercial letter dated 15 November, with no commitment required and two contact phone numbers to close the deal. The fine print set conditions: the oil had to meet the acceptance parameters of the Acceptance Document, and the lead price held as long as there was no sharp movement in its market rate during the month.

The bare figure dismantles a very widespread habit: handing your old battery over at the garage where they fit the new one and saying thank you. Some claim that quick-fit workshops even charge the customer for taking the waste away, and that the same waste is then sold on to the recovery plant. The business has two ends, and the private customer only sees one.

What you actually get paid for a car battery

The going rates people talk about vary widely. At a scrapyard, two old household batteries turned into 20 euros. In another case, the deal was settled at 5 euros per unit, regardless of weight. With the €550 per tonne rate in hand, the difference between being paid by the kilo or by the piece stops being a detail: it is the difference between recovering the waste's value and giving it away.

The anecdote that best sums up the general ignorance is almost comic. A driver had his bonnet up when someone came over to ask whether he was about to change the battery. That was when it dawned on him that this was not rubbish. What to him was a useless piece of junk was, to the visitor, raw material with a price tag.

The garage gets paid twice for the same battery

The circuit works like this: the customer pays for the new battery, pays — according to one account — a charge for the removal of the old one, and the business then places it in the recovery chain. The suspicion that the garage's margin comes free, or even at a profit, is not far-fetched. With batteries at five euros a piece, the sums people do out loud involve making 100 euros a day from the steady trickle of customers at a quick-fit workshop.

The alternative that wins out among those who have done the maths is twofold: buy the battery online — the saving is described as a fortune — and fit it yourself in the garage or at the local village workshop. And when choosing a model, go for the biggest one that fits the bay. The old battery, of course, is not left behind.

Used oil: the waste hardly anyone declares

The oil case is less visible and more toxic. The €210 per tonne rate at the Teruel plant turns every household container into a fraction of income, but the dominant habit is still to pour it away or dump it. The Acceptance Document's condition is a reminder that not everything qualifies: the oil must meet certain admission parameters, which means separating it properly and not mixing it with water or solvents.

The uncomfortable message underlying the whole operation is this: what gets thrown in the bin has a buyer. And the buyer, moreover, is a company that presents itself as the market leader in waste management and recovery. There is no charity in the rate. There is a market.

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One question remains unanswered: if the price is published, the plant is open and the phone works, why do we keep giving away at the garage what we would be paid for at the scrapyard?