EU ministers agree to new Battery Directive proposals

The Directive requires the collection and recycling of waste batteries, and limits their disposal by landfill or incineration. The requirements of the Directive are to be paid for by battery manufacturers via producer responsibility.

” The faster we act now in collecting and recycling, the better for the environment and the more cost-effective.“
– EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas

Today’s agreement includes the setting of binding collection and recycling targets, and a partial ban on using cadmium in portable (consumer) batteries. All industrial and automotive batteries are to be collected for recycling under the proposed Directive.

The measures had been in danger of being pushed aside, had today's agreement not be made on the last Environment Council meeting before the end of the Dutch Presidency.

The agreement sets collection targets for portable batteries of 25% and 45% of the average annual sales over the past three years. These targets are to be achieved respectively four and eight years after the transposition of the Directive.

Cadmium
Environment ministers gave their agreement to a Directive that has been “watered down” since the original European Commission proposals. Under a compromise position put forward by the Dutch Presidency, the proposed 80% collection target for batteries containing cadmium was dropped.

Instead, the Council agreed to a partial ban on using cadmium in making portable batteries. The ban is to apply to all cadmium-containing batteries except those used for emergency and alarm systems, medical equipment and cordless power tools. This exemption effectively applies to about 70% of the market. However, the exemption for cordless power tools will be reviewed four years after the date for transposing the directive into national law.

Despite the massive exemptions under the ban, all batteries containing cadmium are still covered by the general collection targets for portable batteries. If they are part of electrical equipment, they are also covered by the WEEE Directive.

Long
The Commission had proposed a general collection target of 160 grams per inhabitant (corresponding to approximately 40% of the annual sales). The Commission reminded the Environment Ministers that experience with existing collection schemes shows that the Council’s time-frame for achieving the 45% collection rate (eight years after the transposition date) would be “unnecessarily long”.

The new EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the agreement on the binding collection and recycling targets and on the partial cadmium ban. But, he warned that “experience with existing collection schemes shows that the agreed time-frame for achieving the 45% collection rate, which is eight years after the transposition date, is unnecessarily long.

“The faster we act now in collecting and recycling, the better for the environment and the more cost-effective,” Mr Dimas said.