In the Netherlands, consumers who return 10 batteries to be recycled at local collection points in supermarkets and other stores are entered into a nationwide monthly draw for €1,000 (£801) travel vouchers and other cash prizes. These points can be exchanged for prizes such as sports equipment and entry to museums. Belgium’s battery collection organisation, Bebat, runs a programme that enables schools to collect points for each kilogramme of batteries collected. In Belgium, for example, almost a quarter of batteries are collected from schools. In countries doing better, more is being spent on TV and radio advertising and programmes involving schools, says Alain Vassart, general secretary of the European Battery Recycling Association. Success depends on consumers handing in their waste batteries for recycling, so consumer awareness is crucial. Why are some countries doing so much better? Those falling somewhere in the middle include the UK, Italy and France. But others, including Romania, Estonia and Portugal, are below 30%. Some countries, including Belgium, Sweden and Denmark, have already exceeded the 45% goal, EPBA says. On this basis, in the UK alone the rules are likely to cost battery companies around £19m.Īt least 14 of the 28 EU member states are expected to miss the target, according to the European Portable Batteries Association (EPBA). In the UK, an estimated 37,000 tonnes of batteries were sold in 2014, each tonne costing £1,150 to collect and process safely. That’s why the EU has forced battery manufacturers to pay for their products’ waste footprint.Īs well as stemming the flow of batteries to incinerators and landfill, the directive has forced manufacturers to cut their use of the most toxic battery ingredients, such as mercury and cadmium. Unlike recyclers of other waste streams, those of alkaline and lithium ion batteries cannot extract more value from their feedstock than it costs them to process it. However, no one has figured out a way to make this recycling profitable. Recycling standard portable batteries such as the AA alkaline batteries powering a torch or a toy can yield a wealth of secondary materials such as iron, zinc and ferromanganese. Is there business sense in recycling batteries? The directive forces manufacturers to cut their use of the most toxic battery ingredients, such as mercury and cadmium. Here we explain why the target is important and how likely it is to be met.Ĭhemicals from batteries which are incinerated or go to landfill may pollute lakes and streams, vaporise into the air, or leach into groundwater, exposing the environment to highly corrosive acids and bases, warned an EU impact assessment produced when the legislation was first proposed.
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