Legislation Update: The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009

1. Legislation Update: The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 Tessa Bowering Senior Environment Officer (Waste)

2. EU BATTERIES DIRECTIVE • Applies to all types of batteries irrespective of their shape, weight, composition or use, except those used in certain military or space applications • Seeks to improve the environmental performance of batteries and the activities of all those involved in the battery life cycle • Came into force in September 2006 • The Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008 – came into force on 26th September 2008. Partially implement Directive.

3. Key provisions • Restrictions on the use of mercury and cadmium • Labelling requirements for new batteries to aid consumer choice and recycling • 25% collection rate for waste portable batteries to be met by September 2012, rising to 45% by Sept 2016 • Prohibition on the disposal by landfill or incineration of waste industrial and automotive batteries (100% recycling) • Producer responsibility obligations • Recycling efficiencies (to ensure a high proportion of the weight of waste batteries is recycled) • Waste battery treatment standards

4. Definitions • Automotive Battery: used for the starting or ignition of the engine of a vehicle or for providing power for any lighting used by such a vehicle • Portable Battery: or battery pack is one which is sealed, can be hand-carried without difficulty and is neither an automotive or industrial battery • Industrial Battery: designed exclusively for industrial or professional uses, used as a source of power for propulsion of an electric vehicle, unsealed but is not an automotive battery or sealed but is not defined as a portable battery

5. Producers • ‘any person in the UK that, irrespective of the selling techniques used (distance sellers included) places batteries or accumulators including those incorporated into appliances or vehicles on the UK market for the first time on a professional basis’

6. Producer Obligations • Portable batteries producers to join a Batteries Compliance Scheme (BCS) to meet their obligations for financing the collection, treatment and recycling of a quantity of waste batteries during a compliance period • Compliance periods will be calendar years and the first will run from 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2010. • The quantity to be collected is related to the quantity of new batteries the producer places on the UK market

7. Producer Obligations • Producers intending to place portable batteries on the UK market should join a BCS by 15 October of the year preceding the relevant compliance period. • Provide quarterly sales data to their scheme • Pay for publicity for consumers and the costs incurred by the EA in monitoring compliance • During the first compliance period all registered producers will be required to provide their sales data for 2008 and 2009

8. Small Producers • All producers, regardless of size, will need to register with a scheme and provide quarterly sales data • Very small producers are exempt from financing the collection, treatment and recycling of batteries • Small producers defined as those placing less than 3 tonnes of portable batteries per year on the UK market

9. BATTERY COMPLIANCE SCHEMES (BCS) • Schemes need to register members annually • Provide quarterly sales returns broken down into the main chemistries for portable batteries and type • The Directive requires a collection network that allows end users to discard portable batteries at an accessible point in their vicinity • Distributors (shops etc.) will be required to take back waste batteries and BCS are likely to have to set up their own collection networks in order to meet their targets. A number of other options for collecting waste batteries such as kerbside collection, collection at CA sites, community drop offs and postal returns.

10. Treatment and Recycling • Schemes will have to ensure that all batteries are treated and recycled according to best available techniques • Battery treatment facilities will be approved by the EA and they will be able to issue evidence on the basis of quantities of batteries delivered to an ABTF by a scheme • Some batteries are exported for recycling and there will therefore be provision for Approved exporters to issue evidence.

11. Targets • 25% of portable batteries placed on the market must be collected by 26th September 2012 and 45% by 26th September 2016 • Interim targets have also been set: 10% by 2010 and 18% by 2011

12. Recycling Requirements • Minimum recycling efficiencies have been set for recycling processes: • 65% by average weight of lead-acid batteries • 75% by average weight of nickel-cadmium batteries • 50% by average weight of other waste batteries

13. Scale • It is expected that <5 schemes will seek approval (proposed annual charge for a portable batteries scheme is £149,000) • Producers: small (<3tonnes) – estimated 1500, large – estimated 200. • ABTFs: UK – 3, Exporters - 10

14. Distributors • End users will be able to take back FOC waste portable batteries • Distributors of portable batteries will not have to take back industrial or automotive batteries • The requirement to take back will only apply to distributors selling batteries. It will not apply to retailers of EEE unless they also sell batteries • Small distributors will be exempt from this take back obligation (floor space of less than 280square metres, sell less than 16kgs of portable batteries/year) • Links to BCS to collect batteries – through BCS collection system or Regulation 25 (gives distributors the right to contact any compliance scheme to ask them to arrange collection)

15. Links with WEEE • From 1 January 2010 batteries will not be included in declarations of weight of electrical and electronic products • Producers will declare the weight of such batteries in their returns on the amount of batteries they have put on the market.

16. Industrial Batteries • Producers must take back waste industrial batteries of any chemistry, on request, from an end user when supplying new industrial batteries. They must also take back FOC waste industrial batteries from end users when the end user is not able to return them to their supplier • Producers of industrial batteries will be required to register with BERR (unless they are members of a BCS as they also put portable batteries on the UK market) • Producers must provide estimated tonnages and the chemistry of industrial batteries placed on the market and which end up as waste in the UK. • Producers must also supply the tonnage the tonnage they have collected and delivered to an approved reprocessor or exporter. • Prohibition on landfilling of industrial and automative batteries

17. Automotive Batteries • Producers must offer take back of waste automotive bateries FOC on request from final holders such as garages, scrapyards and CA sites • Producers must register with BERR • Producers to report to BERR on the tonnage of automotive batteries placed on the UK market and that which they have collected and delivered to an approved reprocessor or exporter

18. Prohibitions (dealt with under the Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008) • Prohibition for placing on the market batteries that contain more than 0.0005% of mercury by weight and of portable batteries that contain more than 0.002%of cadmium by weight • Exemptions for button cells containing mercury and for batteries containing cadmium – namely those that are used in emergency/alarm systems, medical equipment and cordless power tools. • Came into force on 26th September 2008

19. For further information • http://www.berr.gov.uk/sectors/sustainability/batteries/page30610.html. • http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/regulation/101529.aspx

20. Thank You Tessa Bowering tessa.bowering@environment-agency.gov.uk