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

25.0 Producer Responsibility, Batteries -
International
25.1 Outline of Policy
The foremost piece of international producer responsibility legislation affecting the
waste prevention of batteries is the EU Batteries and Accumulators and Waste
Batteries and Accumulators Directive (2006/66/EC) (hereafter “the Batteries
Directive”). Batteries, along with three other waste streams subject to EC producer
responsibility directives (Packaging, WEEE and ELV), were identified in the EU’s Fifth
Environment Action Programme as a “priority waste stream” due to increasing
concern of the adverse impact of battery waste on the environment. Sustainability is
therefore at the heart of such policies.
Whilst this Directive incorporates elements that could be considered as separate
policies (i.e. outright ban on sending certain types of batteries to landfill or
incineration), the Batteries Directive is principally concerned with producer
responsibility. It should, however, be noted that there are other countries with
producer responsibility policies for batteries, notably Canada, USA, Brazil, Japan and
South Korea and many others are also in the process of considering such legislation.
25.1.1 EU Policy
According to the Batteries Directive there are three distinct battery classifications –
industrial, automotive and portable (usually defined as sealed and hand carried).
Whilst it is clear to which sector of the economy industrial batteries belong, portable
batteries are used across consumer, commercial and industrial sectors (though the
vast majority are used in consumer applications). Automotive batteries also straddle
all three sectors.
As noted in the Directive, “batteries” is used to mean single-life batteries (sometimes
also referred to as ‘primary’ batteries), and “accumulators” to mean rechargeable
batteries (sometimes also referred to as ‘secondary’ batteries). In this report
“batteries” is taken to mean both batteries and accumulators, unless otherwise
specified.
The intended impact of the Batteries Directive is to improve the environmental
performance of batteries and of the activities of all economic operators involved in
the life cycle of batteries.
Key provisions of the Directive are:
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� Restrictions on the use of mercury (0.0005%) and cadmium (0.002%) in all
batteries by weight (with the exception of button cells at 2%);
� Labelling requirements for new batteries to aid consumer choice and recycling;
� A 25% collection rate for waste portable batteries to be met by September
2012, rising to 45% by September 2016;
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes