News & Views

Our aim is to bring you timely and relevant news about industry developments.

Proposals for Batteries Directive

A new Battery Directive is going through the EU legislative process and it will require the collection and recycling of all batteries placed on the EU market. It aims to prevent spent batteries ending up in incinerators or landfills and therefore to recover the various metals used in batteries.

The proposed Directive aims to create an EU-wide framework for national battery collection and recycling schemes and will enhance the proper functioning of the internal market. An Extended Impact Assessment, carried out by the Commission in the preparation of this proposal, has identified the proposed measures as the most sustainable policy options from environmental, economic and social points of view. The directive proposes the following measures:

• to ban the landfilling or incineration of all automotive and industrial batteries;
• to set up national collection systems, allowing consumers to return their spent batteries free of charge;
• to set a collection target for consumer batteries of 160g per inhabitant per year (corresponding to 4-5 portable batteries per person per year);
• to set a collection target of 80 per cent for nickel-cadmium consumer batteries;
• to set recycling targets by weight for different types of batteries.
• producers to be made responsible for costs related to collection, treatment and recycling;
• producers to be allowed to use a ‘visible fee’ for a maximum of five years after implementation.

For more information visit the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government website - http://www.environ.ie/en/Environment/Waste/ProducerResponsibilityObligations/Batteries/