Battery Directive

[1]: 4 [2] Batteries commonly contain hazardous elements such as mercury, cadmium, and lead, which when incinerated or landfilled, present a risk to the environment and human health.

Directive 91/157/EEC was adopted on 18 March 1991 to reduce these hazards by harmonising EU member states' laws on the disposal and recycling of batteries containing dangerous substances.

Among those nations are: Belgium, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and others.

With the finalisation of the 2006 Battery Directive, European states now have specific guidelines to which to make rules to comport.

[5] It covered many battery types, including industrial, automotive, dry-cell, lead-acid, alkaline, nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal-hydride, lithium, lithium-ion, mercury, etc.

The 1991 battery Directive's "Article 3; MI; Annex I" stated the prohibition (with exceptions) of marketing:

Thus the onus was on everyone in the waste management chain, from producer to the consumer, rather than affecting product design with substance bans that manufacturers claimed are unreasonable.

In February 2003 an open stakeholders consultation process was started, which published its findings online, and culminated in a meeting in Brussels, in July 2003.

The waters were tested by asking for Extended Impact Assessments for different scenarios of proposed ranges of regulation.

The "green" viewpoint (and perhaps that of the Conciliation Committee's)[7] was that the previous Directive had been limited in scope, while groups on the other side set forth reasons for less stringency.

Those arguing for broadening the scope claimed that if batteries with certain metals were not banned carte blanche then the waste management effort would be hurt by confusion and perhaps inconvenience to the public.

It was welcomed by entities like the European Portable Battery Association (EPBA), that favoured less stringency.

Some nations took the initiative and had already started programs and passed laws in accordance with the spirit and specifications of earlier battery directives.

It is proposed that member states set their own country's standards using the Battery Directive as a guide for minimum levels.

Member States are required to provide collection sites that are accessible and free of charge to the public (Art.

Collections rates are to be monitored annually as outlined in Annex I scheme, with yearly reporting to the Commission.

Member states may use instruments like differential tax rates to encourage less toxic batteries and recycling (Art.

This means they need to check who the producer under legal terms of the directive is and whether they have fulfilled the labelling obligation.

[13] Similar European pieces of legislation protecting the environment and health, parallel to the Battery Directive, are the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directives and Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation.