International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

24.11 Social and Distributional Consequences
The right to free take-back of waste batteries will apply equally to people living in
urban and rural communities. When fully operational, the waste battery recovery
scheme will provide a network of authorised collection facilities spread throughout
the country, thereby providing local access to waste battery take back arrangements.
Members of the public may continue to avail of the free take-back service provided at
Civic Amenity sites. Schools and workplaces may also continue to provide free
convenient collection points for students/employees, but the premises must be
designated by their Local Authority in order to continue providing the collection point.
The changes required as a result the Directive are likely to lead to employment
opportunities of a broad range (from manual to highly skilled) in Ireland. The possible
impacts at the EU level are discussed in Section 25.9.
24.12 Complementary Policies
These are principally other EU Directives and are discussed in section 25.10.
24.13 Effect of the Policy on Pricing of Resources / Services
Due to the only recent transposition of the Directive, it is as yet unknown if an
increase in battery prices will follow as a consequence of the additional financial
commitments on producers.
24.14 Evasion and Enforcement
The EPA and local authorities have enforcement roles under the Batteries Directive.
In general terms, the EPA is responsible for enforcing producer obligations and local
authorities for distributor obligations. As with other directives of this kind the
enforcement agencies tend to take a ‘light-touch’ approach (i.e. raising awareness
rather than using the full-force of the law) during an initial period as those affected by
the regulations become familiar. This position then tends to gradually tighten as
genuine evasion becomes apparent.
24.15 Lessons Learned
Ireland has opted to follow the lead of other Member States who have been able to
deliver high collection rates via a network of collection points (see section 25.6). The
provision of collection points in Ireland is one per every 400 inhabitants, which is
equal to that in top performing countries such as Belgium and Germany indicating a
high level of scheme convenience for the public. 532
Whilst level of service is undoubtedly a key factor in the success of any collection
scheme it is critical the public at large is aware of such services and how to use them.
Given the extremely low starting level of portable battery collection rates in Ireland it
532 Based on 10,000 retailer take-back serving a population of 4 million inhabitants.
455
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes