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

For automotive and industrial batteries the higher the collection targets, the lower the
environmental damages due to transport (recycling benefits increase more than
transport negative impacts). The total environmental benefits of a ban on landfill for
automotive and industrial batteries are difficult to quantify since the heavy metal
content of leachate is difficult to predict on the basis of current knowledge.
Furthermore, as stated above, recycling rates for automotive batteries are already
high.
25.6 Collection Performance and Key Drivers
It is at this point interesting to consider the relative success of different approaches
to the collection of portable batteries.
Until recently one of the problems when comparing collection rates across different
countries has been the method of calculation for this indicator. Various collection rate
methodologies have been used, including as a percentage of sales, percentage of
spent batteries, and as a percentage of spent batteries available for collection. These
three different methodologies lead to quite different ‘collection rates’ and so it is
important to understand what is actually being reported by a particular country to
avoid misleading claims. Table 25-3 provides a summary of the leading portable
battery collectors in the EU, showing collection rates as a percentage of sales and so
all countries are benchmarked evenly.
Table 25-3: Leading EU Portable Battery Collection Performance in 2002
469
Country Country
Belgium Belgium
France France
Germany Germany Netherland Netherlands
Netherland
Association BEBAT SCRELEC GRS STIBAT
Starting Date 1996 2001 1998 1995
Collection System
Inhabitants per
Collection Point
Bring back –
different types
of collection
points
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes
Bring back –
point of sale and
municipal
collection points
Bring back –
predominately
point of sale
Bring back
system with
small chemical
waste
500 2,000 - 2,500 410 1,500
Tonnes Collected 2,368 4,139 11,256 1,876
Collection Rate (% of
sales)
60% 16% 38% 32%
Grams/inhabitant/year 228 69 137 116
Source: BIO Intelligence Service (2003), Impact Assessment on Selected Policy Options for Revision of
the Battery Directive, Final Report for EC, July 2003.
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/batteries/pdf/eia_batteries_final.pdf
Looking at Table 25-3 it can be seen that all countries have very similar collection
systems in place - consumer bring back collection points of various types. Whilst it is