Introducing Alan

Alan Colledge is a 3rd term Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor with 27 years of experience in the waste industry.

For many years Alan headed up Cawley’s Hazardous Services Department where he dealt with essentially every hazardous waste type during his career. In early 2012 Alan was faced with a new waste type - Automotive Lithium batteries. Initially, the recycling of these batteries in the UK was very difficult due to the lack of metallurgical treatment, so Alan set about establishing relationships with disposal routes in Europe which led to Cawleys having an Authorised Battery Exporter Licence in 2017. At the same time, Alan envisioned that the uptake of hybrid and electric cars was on the rise and eventually there would be a huge demand for an exit route for the batteries that power them. With limited recycling options at that time, Alan saw a gap in the market and began to establish a service for the collection, dismantling and recycling of these lithium batteries right here in the UK. This has opened the doors to a new world of relationships in the automotive sector, and steadily over the past 4 years, the business has evolved to its current state as an entity all of its own - Lithium Battery Recycling Solutions. Fully accredited, and now operating as an Authorised Battery Treatment Operator, Alan has gained invaluable experience in dealing with lithium battery handling and recycling and is now a trusted expert in this new field. Alan is able to provide advice and guidance on all aspects of lithium recycling and is now taking the business to the next stages with mechanical segregation which will help in breaking the batteries down to recover the materials within, which will be a pioneering step.