EU Battery Directive

Several hundred thousand tonnes of industrial and portable batteries and accumulators are placed on the European market every year.

A wide range of metals are used, from mercury, lead and cadmium to nickel, copper, zinc, manganese and lithium. Disposing of the waste from these products by incineration pollutes the atmosphere and burying them in landfill sites contaminates ground-cover and water courses.

Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament aims to achieve a significant reduction in the amount of hazardous substances - in particular, mercury, cadmium and lead - dumped in the environment. This should be achieved by reducing the use of these substances in batteries and accumulators and by treating and re-using the amounts that are used.

The Directive prohibits the placing on the market of certain batteries and accumulators with a proportional mercury or cadmium content above a fixed threshold. In addition, it promotes a high rate of collection and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators and improvement in the environmental performance of all parties involved in the life-cycle of batteries and accumulators, including their recycling and disposal.

The Directive applies to all types of batteries and accumulators, apart from those used in equipment to protect Member States' security or for military purposes, or in equipment designed to be sent into space. It therefore covers a wider range of products than the now repealed Directive 91/157/EEC, which applied only to batteries containing mercury, lead or cadmium, and excluded "button cells".

The Directive prohibits:

• batteries and accumulators, whether or not incorporated in appliances, containing more than 0.0005% by weight of mercury (except for button cells, which must have a mercury content of less than 2% by weight);
• portable batteries and accumulators, including those incorporated in appliances, with a cadmium content by weight of more than 0.002% (except for portable batteries and accumulators for use in emergency and alarm systems, medical equipment or cordless power tools).

To ensure that a high proportion of spent batteries and accumulators are recycled, Member States must take whatever measures are needed (including economic instruments) to promote and maximise separate waste collections and prevent batteries and accumulators being thrown away as unsorted municipal refuse. They have to make arrangements enabling end-users to discard spent batteries and accumulators at collection points in their vicinity and have them taken back at no charge by the producers. A collection rate of at least 25%  has to be achieved by 26 September 2012 and and a collection rate of 45% by 26 September 2016. Member States also have to ensure that batteries and accumulators that have been collected are treated and recycled using the best available techniques. Recycling must exclude energy recovery. As a minimum, treatment must include removal of all fluids and acids. Batteries and accumulators must be treated and stored (even if only temporarily) in sites with impermeable surfaces and weatherproof covering, or in suitable containers.

Member States must also ensure that In principle, manufacturers design their appliances to facilitate ready and safe removal of batteries and accumulators readily and safely. As a minimum, treatment must include removal of all fluids and acids.

The recycling of battery and accumulator content to produce similar products or for other purposes has to reach the following levels by 26 September 2011:

• at least 65% by average weight of lead-acid batteries and accumulators, including the recycling of the lead content to the highest degree that is technically feasible.
• 75% by average weight of nickel-cadmium batteries and accumulators, including the recycling of the lead content to the highest degree that is technically feasible.

at least 50% by average weight of other battery and accumulator waste.

LINKS

The Legislation document.

Consolidated version

Premier Farnell's 2-page Introduction to the "new" EU Battery Directive  is a sucsinct  summary of the EU's ambitions to reduce the impact our dependance on numerous battery technologies has on the environment.