25.10.2005   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 264/1

(1)

It is desirable to harmonise national measures concerning batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators. The primary objective of this Directive is to minimise the negative impact of batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators on the environment, thus contributing to the protection, preservation and improvement of the quality of the environment. The legal base is therefore Article 175(1) of the Treaty. However, it is also appropriate to take measures at Community level on the basis of Article 95(1) of the Treaty to harmonise requirements concerning the heavy metal content and labelling of batteries and accumulators and so to ensure the smooth functioning of the internal market and avoid distortion of competition within the Community.

(2)

The Commission Communication of 30 July 1996 on the Review of the Community Strategy for Waste Management established guidelines for future Community waste policy. That Communication stresses the need to reduce the quantities of hazardous substances in waste and points out the potential benefits of Community-wide rules limiting the presence of such substances in products and in production processes. It further states that, where the generation of waste cannot be avoided, that waste should be reused or recovered for its material or energy.

(3)

Council Directive 91/157/EEC of 18 March 1991 on batteries and accumulators containing certain dangerous substances (5) has brought about an approximation of Member States' laws in this field. However, the objectives of that Directive have not been fully attained. Decision No 1600/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2002 laying down the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme (6) and Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (7) also underlined the need for Directive 91/157/EEC to be revised. Directive 91/157/EEC should therefore be revised and replaced in the interests of clarity.

(4)

In order to achieve its environmental aims, this Directive prohibits the placing on the market of certain batteries and accumulators containing mercury or cadmium. It also promotes a high level of collection and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators and improved environmental performance of all operators involved in the life cycle of batteries and accumulators, e.g. producers, distributors and end-users and, in particular, those operators directly involved in the treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators. The specific rules needed to do this are supplementary to existing Community legislation on waste, in particular Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste (8), Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste (9) and Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2000 on the incineration of waste (10).

(5)

In order to prevent waste batteries and accumulators from being discarded in such a way as to pollute the environment, and to avoid end-user confusion about the different waste management requirements for different batteries and accumulators, this Directive should apply to all batteries and accumulators placed on the market within the Community. Such a wide scope should also ensure economies of scale in collection and recycling, as well as optimal resource saving.

(6)

Reliable batteries and accumulators are fundamental for the safety of many products, appliances and services, and are an essential energy source in our society.

(7)

It is appropriate to distinguish between portable batteries and accumulators on the one hand and industrial and automotive batteries and accumulators on the other. The disposal of industrial and automotive batteries and accumulators in landfill sites or by incineration should be prohibited.

(8)

Examples of industrial batteries and accumulators include batteries and accumulators used for emergency or back-up power supply in hospitals, airports or offices, batteries and accumulators used in trains or aircraft and batteries and accumulators used on offshore oil rigs or in lighthouses. Examples also include batteries and accumulators designed exclusively for hand-held payment terminals in shops and restaurants, bar code readers in shops, professional video equipment for TV channels and professional studios, miners' lamps and diving lamps attached to mining and diving helmets for professionals, back-up batteries and accumulators for electric doors to prevent them from blocking or crushing people, batteries and accumulators used for instrumentation or in various types of measurement and instrumentation equipment and batteries and accumulators used in connection with solar panel, photo-voltaic, and other renewable energy applications. Industrial batteries and accumulators also include batteries and accumulators used in electrical vehicles, such as electric cars, wheelchairs, bicycles, airport vehicles and automatic transport vehicles. In addition to this non exhaustive list of examples, any battery or accumulator that is not sealed and not automotive should be considered industrial.

(9)

Examples of portable batteries and accumulators, which are all-sealed batteries and accumulators that an average person could carry by hand without difficulty and that are neither automotive batteries or accumulators nor industrial batteries or accumulators, include single cell batteries (such as AA and AAA batteries) and batteries and accumulators used by consumers or professionals in mobile telephones, portable computers, cordless power tools, toys and household appliances such as electric toothbrushes, razors and hand-held vacuum cleaners (including similar equipment used in schools, shops, restaurants, airports, offices or hospitals) and any battery that consumers may use for normal household applications.

(10)

The Commission should evaluate the need for adaptation of this Directive, taking account of available technical and scientific evidence. In particular, the Commission should carry out a review of the exemption from the cadmium ban provided for portable batteries and accumulators intended for use in cordless power tools. Examples of cordless power tools are tools that consumers and professionals use for turning, milling, sanding, grinding, sawing, cutting, shearing, drilling, making holes, punching, hammering, riveting, screwing, polishing or similar processing of wood, metal and other materials, as well as for mowing, cutting and other gardening activities.

(11)

The Commission should also monitor, and Member States should encourage, technological developments that improve the environmental performance of batteries and accumulators throughout their entire life cycle, including through participation in a Community eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS).

(12)

In order to protect the environment, waste batteries and accumulators should be collected. For portable batteries and accumulators, collection schemes achieving a high collection rate should be established. This means setting up collection schemes so that end-users can discard all waste portable batteries and accumulators conveniently and free of charge. Different collection schemes and financing arrangements are appropriate for the different battery and accumulator types.

(13)

It is desirable for Member States to achieve a high collection and recycling rate for waste batteries and accumulators so as to achieve a high level of environmental protection and material recovery throughout the Community. This Directive should therefore set minimum collection and recycling targets for Member States. It is appropriate to calculate the collection rate on the basis of average annual sales in preceding years, so as to have comparable targets for all Member States that are proportionate to the national level of battery consumption.

(14)

Specific recycling requirements should be established for cadmium and lead batteries and accumulators in order to attain a high level of material recovery throughout the Community and to prevent disparities between Member States.

(15)

All interested parties should be able to participate in collection, treatment and recycling schemes. Those schemes should be designed to avoid discrimination against imported products, barriers to trade or distortions of competition.

(16)

Collection and recycling schemes should be optimised, in particular in order to minimise costs and the negative environmental impact of transport. Treatment and recycling schemes should use best available techniques, as defined in Article 2(11) of Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (11).

(17)

Basic principles for financing the management of waste batteries and accumulators should be set at Community level. Financing schemes should help to achieve high collection and recycling rates and to give effect to the principle of producer responsibility. Producers should therefore finance the costs of collecting, treating and recycling all collected batteries and accumulators minus the profit made by selling the materials recovered. However, under certain circumstances, the application of de minimis rules to small producers could be justified.

(18)

The provision of information to end-users on the desirability of separate collection, the collection schemes available and end-users' role in the management of waste batteries and accumulators is necessary for successful collection. Detailed arrangements should be made for a labelling system, which should provide end-users with transparent, reliable and clear information on batteries and accumulators and any heavy metals they contain.

(19)

If, in order to achieve the objectives of this Directive, and, in particular, to achieve high separate collection and recycling rates, Member States use economic instruments, such as differential tax rates, they should inform the Commission accordingly.

(20)

Reliable and comparable data on the quantities of batteries and accumulators placed on the market collected and recycled are necessary for monitoring whether the objectives of this Directive have been achieved.

(21)

Member States should lay down rules on the penalties applicable to infringements of the provisions of this Directive and ensure that they are implemented. Those penalties should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

(22)

The Council, in accordance with paragraph 34 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on better law-making (12), should encourage Member States to draw up, for themselves and in the interests of the Community, their own tables, which will, as far as possible, illustrate the correlation between this Directive and the transposition measures and to make them public.

(23)

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Directive should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (13).

(24)

Since the objectives of this Directive, namely, protecting the environment and ensuring the proper functioning of the internal market, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale or effects of the action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(25)

This Directive applies without prejudice to Community legislation on safety, quality and health requirements and specific Community waste management legislation, in particular Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on end-of-life vehicles (14) and Directive 2002/96/EC.

(26)

As regards producer responsibility, producers of batteries and accumulators and producers of other products incorporating a battery or accumulator are responsible for the waste management of batteries and accumulators that they place on the market. A flexible approach is appropriate to enable financing schemes to reflect differing national circumstances and to take account of existing schemes, particularly those set up to comply with Directives 2000/53/EC and 2002/96/EC, while avoiding double charging.

(27)

Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (15) does not apply to batteries and accumulators used in electrical and electronic equipment.

(28)

Automotive and industrial batteries and accumulators used in vehicles should meet the requirements of Directive 2000/53/EC, in particular Article 4 thereof. Therefore the use of cadmium in industrial batteries and accumulators for electrical vehicles should be prohibited, unless they can benefit from an exemption on the basis of Annex II to that Directive,

1.

rules regarding the placing on the market of batteries and accumulators; and

2.

specific rules for the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of waste batteries and accumulators to supplement relevant Community legislation on waste.

(a)

equipment connected with the protection of Member States' essential security interests, arms, munitions and war material, with the exclusion of products that are not intended for specifically military purposes;

(b)

equipment designed to be sent into space.

1.

‘battery’ or ‘accumulator’ means any source of electrical energy generated by direct conversion of chemical energy and consisting of one or more primary battery cells (non-rechargeable) or consisting of one or more secondary battery cells (rechargeable);

2.

‘battery pack’ means any set of batteries or accumulators that are connected together and/or encapsulated within an outer casing so as to form a complete unit that the end-user is not intended to split up or open;

3.

‘portable battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator that:

4.

‘button cell’ means any small round portable battery or accumulator whose diameter is greater than its height and which is used for special purposes such as hearing aids, watches, small portable equipment and back-up power;

5.

‘automotive battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator used for automotive starter, lighting or ignition power;

6.

‘industrial battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator designed for exclusively industrial or professional uses or used in any type of electric vehicle;

7.

‘waste battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator which is waste within the meaning of Article 1(a) of Directive 75/442/EEC;

8.

‘recycling’ means the reprocessing in a production process of waste materials for their original purpose or for other purposes, but excluding energy recovery;

9.

‘disposal’ means any of the applicable operations provided for in Annex IIA to Directive 75/442/EEC;

10.

‘treatment’ means any activity carried out on waste batteries and accumulators after they have been handed over to a facility for sorting, preparation for recycling or preparation for disposal;

11.

‘appliance’ means any electrical or electronic equipment, as defined by Directive 2002/96/EC, which is fully or partly powered by batteries or accumulators or is capable of being so;

12.

‘producer’ means any person in a Member State that, irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance communication as defined in Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts (16), places batteries or accumulators, including those incorporated into appliances or vehicles, on the market for the first time within the territory of that Member State on a professional basis;

13.

‘distributor’ means any person that provides batteries and accumulators on a professional basis to an end-user;

14.

‘placing on the market’ means supplying or making available, whether in return for payment or free of charge, to a third party within the Community and includes import into the customs territory of the Community;

15.

‘economic operators’ means any producer, distributor, collector, recycler or other treatment operator;

16.

‘cordless power tool’ means any hand held appliance powered by a battery or accumulator and intended for maintenance, construction or gardening activities.

(a)

all batteries or accumulators, whether or not incorporated into appliances, that contain more than 0,0005 % of mercury by weight; and

(b)

portable batteries or accumulators, including those incorporated into appliances, that contain more than 0,002 % of cadmium by weight.

(a)

emergency and alarm systems, including emergency lighting;

(b)

medical equipment; or

(c)

cordless power tools.

(a)

shall enable end-users to discard waste portable batteries or accumulators at an accessible collection point in their vicinity, having regard to population density;

(b)

shall not involve any charge to end-users when discarding waste portable batteries or accumulators, nor any obligation to buy a new battery or accumulator;

(c)

may be run in conjunction with the schemes referred to in Article 5(2) of Directive 2002/96/EC.

(a)

require producers to set up such schemes;

(b)

require other economic operators to participate in such schemes;

(c)

maintain existing schemes.

(a)

25 % by … (18);

(b)

45 % by … (19).

(a)

transitional arrangements may be laid down to address difficulties faced by a Member State in satisfying the requirements of paragraph 2 as a result of specific national circumstances;

(b)

a common methodology shall be established for the calculation of annual sales of portable batteries and accumulators to end-users by … (21).

(a)

producers or third parties set up schemes using best available techniques to provide for the treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators; and

(b)

all identifiable batteries and accumulators collected in accordance with Article 7 undergo treatment and recycling through such schemes.

(a)

detailed rules regarding the calculation of recycling targets shall be added no later than … (25); and

(b)

the minimum recycling targets shall be evaluated regularly and adapted to best available techniques and in the light of the developments referred to in paragraph 1, second subparagraph.

(a)

the collection, treatment and recycling of all waste portable batteries and accumulators collected in accordance with Article 7(1) and (2); and

(b)

the collection, treatment and recycling of all waste industrial and automotive batteries and accumulators collected in accordance with Articles 7(3) and (4).

(a)

the potential effects on the environment and human health of the substances used in batteries and accumulators;

(b)

the desirability of not disposing of waste batteries and accumulators as unsorted municipal waste and of participating in their separate collection so as to facilitate treatment and recycling;

(c)

the collection and recycling schemes available to them;

(d)

their role in contributing to the recycling of waste batteries and accumulators;

(e)

the meaning of the symbol of the crossed-out wheeled bin shown in Annex II and the chemical symbols Hg, Cd and Pb.

(a)

developments, including voluntary steps taken by producers, reducing quantities of heavy metals and other hazardous substances contained in batteries and accumulators;

(b)

new recycling and treatment techniques;

(c)

economic operators' participation in environmental management schemes;

(d)

research in those fields; and

(e)

measures taken to promote waste prevention.

(a)

the appropriateness of further risk management measures for batteries and accumulators containing heavy metals;

(b)

the appropriateness of the minimum collection targets for all waste portable batteries and accumulators set out in Article 9(2), and the possibility of introducing further targets for later years, taking account of technical progress and practical experience gained in Member States;

(c)

the appropriateness of the minimum recycling requirements set out in Annex III, Part B, taking account of information that Member States provide, technical progress and practical experience gained in Member States.

(a)

they shall be enforceable;

(b)

they must specify objectives with the corresponding deadlines;

(c)

they must be published in the national official journal or an official document equally accessible to the public and transmitted to the Commission.