EU set for charged battery debate

EU environment ministers are set to reject European parliament calls for hard-hitting recycling targets for spent batteries.

Ahead of conciliation talks with MEPs to conclude a deal on the EU’s new batteries directive, the council of environment ministers are taking a tough negotiating position on key parliamentary amendments.

MEP proposals to up the general battery recycling rate from 50 per cent to 55 per cent are to be rejected as are moves to include ‘closed loop’ control of lead and cadmium waste from used industrial and rechargeable batteries.

The directive, intended to stop used batteries being disposed of in landfills or incinerators, and to recover the hazardous metals such as mercury and cadmium contained in them, will create an EU framework for national battery collection and recycling.

A council position document, published on Wednesday however, reveals moves to lessen the general impact of the directive.

Ministers are seeking to remove references that would exclude incineration as a method of recycling, and loosen the language on member states’ commitments to separate spent batteries and accumulators from normal waste.

And environment ministers also want to cut back MEP demands that would force all EU member states to ensure that battery suppliers are obliged to take back spent batteries.

Ministers want battery take-back, and proposals for mandatory financing of public information campaigns by producers, to be at member states’ discretion.

National governments also want to exclude small scale producers from much of the directive’s requirements and are expected to fight against parliament’s wish to make the legislation’s primary purpose “the prevention of the use of heavy metals.”

MEPs, the European commission and national governments have waged a running battle over the issue of heavy metals in batteries.

A crucial sticking point in the discussions had been proposals to ban nickel-cadmium batteries.

Cadmium is a known carcinogen, linked to kidney, bone and liver damage.

A deal on a partial ban on using cadmium in batteries was struck last year but heavy lobbying by power tool manufacturers for an exemption drastically reduced the ban’s scope.

Power tools account for 70 per cent of the EU’s nickel-cadmium market.

Member states will have two years to transpose the final batteries directive into national law.

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