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Environment
and Consumer
Waste legislation:
Batteries
The
European Union gives strategic direction to waste management policy
on a number of fronts from implementing the Basel Convention of
1989 on shipments of waste to regulating mining and electrical waste
(including fridges and batteries) to setting targets for the recovery
and recycling of packaging waste.
Batteries
The Environment
Committee has been looking at proposals from the European Commission
on batteries and accumulators - with the aim of reducing the quantities
of used batteries going to disposal, by setting collection and recycling
targets. The proposal lays down labelling requirements indicating
their separate collection as well as their heavy metal content.
The Parliament voted for a ban on the use of mercury in batteries
as well as portable nickel-cadmium and lead batteries.
- More than
650 million portable batteries are sold annually in the UK.
- The UK is a major producer of battery-powered appliances.
- The average UK household has an average of 21 battery-powered
appliances.
More than 10,000
tonnes of British batteries would require recycling four years after
the legislation is passed. It will require the setting up of collection
and recycling schemes for portable batteries. Households will be
encouraged to separate used batteries from their waste.
The Conservatives
are aiming to make the collection and recycling targets and timeframes
ambitious yet realistic. The EPP-ED political group voted against
the Parliament's Report at First Reading because other Members
voted for a ban on nickel cadmium batteries, which would only bring
a long-delayed environmental benefit, rather than the immediate
benefit of collecting and recycling batteries in the waste-stream.
There will soon be a Second Reading. |
