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

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� A prohibition on the disposal by landfill or incineration of waste industrial and
automotive batteries – in effect setting a 100% collection and recycling target;
� The introduction of “producer responsibility” obligations;
� The setting of recycling efficiencies to ensure that a high proportion of the
weight of waste batteries is recycled (65% of lead acid batteries, 75% of
nickel-cadmium batteries and 50% of other waste batteries); and
� The setting of waste battery treatment standards.
Member State implementation of the Directive reflects these objectives. The
implementation of the Batteries Directive is broadly similar across Member States,
with mercury and cadmium limits being universal, alongside producer responsibility
policies to cover the costs of campaigns to inform the public, and to implement, the
new arrangements. Producer responsibility requires (article 8 of the Batteries
Directive):
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“distributors to take back waste portable batteries or accumulators at no
charge when supplying portable batteries or accumulators, unless an
assessment shows that alternative existing schemes are at least as effective
in attaining the environmental aims of this Directive. Member States shall
make public such assessments”.
It should be emphasised that the Battery Directive leaves considerable freedom to
the Member States and their national legislation with respect to the organisation of
collection systems. It only specifies that batteries can be collected (1) individually (2)
by way of national battery collection schemes or (3) together with the WEEE collection
schemes. A similar freedom applies to the actual physical infrastructure that is used.
For instance, in Belgium, schools are used as collection points, while in some other
countries this is forbidden. 533 (See Section 15.3.3).
Provided that the objectives set out in this Directive are achieved, Member States
may transpose the provisions on producer responsibility by means of voluntary
agreements between the competent authorities and economic operators concerned.
Article 27 stipulates the requirements these voluntary agreements should meet the
following conditions:
� They shall be enforceable;
� They must specify objectives with corresponding deadlines;
� They must be published in the national official journal and transmitted to the
Commission;
� The results achieved must be monitored regularly, and reported to the
competent authorities and the Commission, and made available to the public
under the conditions set out in the agreement;
533 Arcadis/Eunomia (2008) Optimising Markets for Recycling, Final Report to DG Environment,
European Commission.