The manufacturers undertake to play an active part in the development, testing and realisation of economically-viable processes and plant for the industrial recycling of unsorted batteries not containing lead, cadmium or mercury, and at the very least to be ready to advise the specialised firms involved. As long as economically-viable and efficient sorting and recovery processes and plant are not available, batteries returned by consumers to traders will have to be disposed of at dumpsites, once those batteries for which recovery processes do currently exist have been separated by hand. Traders will collect the returned batteries, unsorted, in containers procured by them on the recommendation of the battery manufacturers' and importers' pool. The haulier appointed by the pool will remove the container on request within reasonable time, and will replace it with an empty container. No further cost will be imposed on the trader at the time the container is handed over.
Details are to be determined in further agreements with the pool.
The traders state that they are willing to carry in their product ranges only those batteries for which disposal costs are shown by battery manufacturers and importers who are members of the pool, or which the trader obtains from firms that can show that handle disposal themselves. Direct importers may likewise organise disposal themselves if they so wish. These statements apply mutatis mutandis to downstream stages in the distribution chain. Measures to be taken by manufacturers, importers and traders alike 9.1 Review of results Manufacturers, importers and traders are jointly and with the assistance of their trade associations to report to the Federal Ministry of the Environment on the implementation and success of the steps promised in the voluntary undertaking. 9.2 Recovery rates Manufacturers, importers and traders state that they are willing to help to achieve optimal rates of recovery for the batteries they collect.