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Ecosurety Limited

Founded in 2003, Ecosurety is the UK’s leading resource efficiency specialist with end to end services including environmental compliance, training and intelligence reporting.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Modernising the EU’s batteries legislation

9 Jul 2020

Purpose of rules The Directive (2006/66/EC) has successfully delivered several of the intended objectives but references relating to the hazardous nature of mercury, lead and cadmium are outdated. They should be broadened to include critical raw materials, outlined in SWD (2018) 245. Cobalt, lithium, nickel, and graphite are important, finite global resources. New rules should be designed to look beyond merely creating collection infrastructure for potentially hazardous batteries towards ensuring these critical materials are recovered for secondary use. The “wireless revolution” continues apace. Battery technology rapidly extending beyond handheld devices to industries such as transportation (e.g. e-bicycled, e-scooters and electric vehicles). The increased demands put on batteries mean they may become defunct in relation to a primary use, once capacity drops below a certain threshold, but could be redeployed in a different setting for a lower specification use. New rules should consider the waste hierarchy and not be premised around collection and recycling only. Creating a level playing field The current definitions relating to industrial, automotive, and portable must be updated. The biggest area of confusion relates to the definition of “can be hand-carried”. A definition based on a physical, provable characteristics is preferred to “intended use”. An alternative option may be to employ a “dual-use” position, like the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU), which prioritises private household use. More granular reporting of batteries’ chemical make-up is required to further subdivide the “other waste batteries and accumulators” category. The most popular technologies, e.g. lithium-ion, should have its own category with any “other” category representing niche chemistries only. Current rules do not benefit rechargeable batteries versus single-use equivalents, even though their lifetime is extended. Rules should be updated to reflect the environmental benefits of the greater lifespan of rechargeable batteries, through modulated fees. Target setting The inclusion of in-year data in the current calculation in the Directive (2006/66/EC) has proved operationally challenging. Recycling obligations should be based on complete placed on market data sets from previous years to avoid these challenges. The average lifespan of a battery should be re-analysed to set an appropriate target. The three-year placed on market element of the calculation is outdated. Recycling rates should reflect what is “available for recycling”. A target for reuse should be explored for large batteries to maximise the lifespan of these batteries before recycling. There is also a potential to explore the inclusion of small amounts of recycled content into casings to stimulate demand for recycling. Raising awareness Article 20 of the Directive (2006/66/EC) has not been stringent enough to ensure end-users have adequate information about their role and the risks of incorrect disposal. The definition of “fully informed” is subjective and there have been failings against all subclauses as a result. Information should be mandatorily centrally co-ordinated by members states for end-users. The small nature of many household batteries means they do not easily lend themselves to additional labelling requirements. Therefore, we only recommend rules relating to colour coding and digital tagging are explored further. Recycling efficiencies and safety Risks associated with batteries throughout their lifespan have increased due to changing technologies. A provision for separation from WEEE in conjunction with changes to the WEEE Directive (2012/19/EU) should ensure batteries are not accidently reprocessed along with mixed metals is required. Costs associated with fires caused by batteries are not presently assigned to the correct producer cohort. Additional safety and insurance costs for waste processors cannot be passed onto batteries producers as the target material is WEEE.
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