CELEX: 51988PC0672
Language: en
Date: 1988-12-01
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON BATTERIES AND ACCUMULATORS CONTAINING DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES

7. 1. 89                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 6/3
                                                               II
                                                       (Preparatory Acts)
                                                  COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Directive on batteries and accumulators containing dangerous substances
                                                COM(88) 672 final — SYN 170
                                     (Submitted by the Commission on 9 December 1988)
                                                          (89/C 6/03)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                           vironment (2) aim in particular at preventing, reducing
                                                                   and as far as possible eliminating pollution and ensuring
                                                                   sound management of raw material resources;
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a                 Whereas in order to achieve these objectives Member
thereof,                                                           States must take measures on inter alia the marking of
                                                                   batteries and accumulators in line with the rules laid
                                                                   down in this Directive; whereas when drafting these
                                                                   rules the Commission has taken as a base a high level of
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                 protection for the environment;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,                       Whereas a high level of protection for the environment
                                                                   should be achieved, in the light of scientific and technical
                                                                   progress, by prohibiting the marketing of batteries
                                                                   containing more than 0,30 % of mercury by weight;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,
                                                                   Whereas a large proportion of spent batteries and accu-
                                                                   mulators containing mercury, cadmium or lead are
                                                                   thrown away without any particular precautions and end
Whereas the general rules on waste disposal laid down              up either on public landfills or in an incinerator; whereas
by Council Directive 75/442/EEC (') apply to spent                 these heavy metals are key components in batteries and
batteries and accumulators;                                        accumulators but are toxic and consequently dangerous;
                                                                   Whereas collection and recycling of spent batteries and
Whereas one Member State has notified the Commission               accumulators can help save raw materials;
that it intends to adopt binding measures on the marking
 and disposal of batteries and accumulators containing
dangerous substances and others are considering the                Whereas the Commission must be notified of the drafts
subject; whereas any disparity between the laws or                  of these measures so that it can examine them and if
 administrative measures adopted by the Member States               necessary, request the Member States to defer their
could create barriers to trade and distort competition in           introduction;
the Community and can thereby have a direct impact on
 the establishment and functioning of the internal market;
whereas it therefore appears necessary to proceed with              Whereas in view of the various aspects of the problem
 approximation of the laws in this field;                           posed by batteries and accumulators adequate measures
                                                                    should be taken to reduce the pollution hazard,
 Whereas the objectives and principles of the
 Community's environment policy as set out in the
 European Community Action Programmes on the En-                    O O J N o C 112,20. 12. 1973, p. 1,
                                                                        O J N o C 139, 13.6. 1977, p. 1,
                                                                        O J N o C 4 6 , 17.2. 1983, p. 1,
 (') OJ No L 194, 25. 7. 1975, p. 47.                                   O J N o C 70, 18. 3. 1987, p. 3.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 6/4                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                    7. 1. 89
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:                                       must contain two symbols, on opposite sides, thus
                                                                  ensuring immediate visibility.
                         Article 1
                                                                  The size of each symbol should be 3 % of the total area,
The objective of this Directive is to approximate the laws        with a maximum dimension of 5 cm by 5 cm; if a battery
of the Member States on the controlled disposal of                is so small that 3 °/o of the total area is smaller than 0,5
batteries and accumulators containing the dangerous               cm by 0,5 cm, one symbol of 1 cm by 1 cm shall be
substances listed in the Annex.                                   displayed on the package instead of the two symbols on
                                                                  the battery.
                         Article 2
For the purposes of this Directive:                                                          Article 5
                                                                  Member States shall take measures to ensure that
(a) 'battery or accumulator' means a source of electrical         batteries and accumulators may be built into appliances
    energy generated by direct conversion of chemical             only if they can be readily removed by the consumer
    energy and consisting of one or more primary                  without the aid of special tools.
    (non-rechargeable) or secondary (rechargeable) cells,
    as listed in the Annex;
                                                                                             Article 6
(b) 'spent battery and accumulator' means a battery or            In order to protect the environment against the hazards
    accumulator which is not reusable or intended for             posed by batteries and accumulators, action taken by the
    disposal;                                                     Member States in the field covered by this Directive shall
                                                                  pursue the following objectives:
(c) 'disposal' means the collection, sorting and carriage
    of spent batteries and accumulators and their storage         — reduction of the heavy-metal content in batteries and
    above or under ground and any conversion oper-                     accumulators,
    ations necessary for recycling;
                                                                  — promotion of marketing of batteries and accu-
                                                                       mulators with a smaller dangerous-substance content,
(d) 'recycling' means processing to recover the secondary
    raw materials contained in spent batteries and accu-
    mulators;                                                     — reduction of the incidence of spent batteries and
                                                                       accumulators in wastes disposed of at household
                                                                       waste-disposal plants,
(e) 'deposit system' means a system under which the
    buyer pays the seller a sum of money which is
                                                                  — promotion of research aimed at reducing the
     refunded when the spent battery or accumulator is
                                                                       dangerous-substance content in batteries and accu-
     returned.
                                                                       mulators and at the recycling thereof,
                         Article 3                                — separate disposal of spent batteries and accumulators.
Member States shall prohibit the marketing of alkaline
manganese batteries containing more than 0,30 % of                                           Article 7
mercury by weight as from 1 January 1993.
                                                                  Member States shall ensure the efficient organization of
                                                                  disposal, including the setting-up of a deposit system,
                         Article 4                                where appropriate.
The Member States shall take appropriate measures         to
ensure that batteries and accumulators are marked         to                                 Article 8
indicate whether the battery or accumulator must          be
                                                                  Member States shall ensure that consumers are informed
disposed of separately, can be recycled or may            be
                                                                  about:
disposed of with household refuse.
                                                                   (a) the danger of uncontrolled disposal of spent batteries
This marking must appear on the battery or accumulator                  and accumulators;
and, where appropriate, on any appliance into which it is
built.                                                             (b) the marking of batteries, accumulators and
                                                                        appliances with built-in batteries and accumulators;
The marking shall correspond to symbol ISO 7000-1135,
consisting of a light-coloured square containing three             (c) the choice of types of battery and accumulator
black-outlined arrows. Each battery and accumulator                     available;
 ---pagebreak--- 7. 1. 89                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                    No C 6/5
(d) the method of removing batteries and accumulators                  ensure that the cost of disposing of batteries and accu-
    which are built into appliances;                                   mulators, less any proceeds from recycling, shall be
                                                                      ^>orne by the importer into the Community of the
(e) where appropriate, the reasons            for  charging    a       batteries and accumulators or by the manufacturer.
     deposit and the amount charged.
                                                                                                  Article 11
                             Article 9
                                                                       Member States shall not impede, prohibit or restrict the
Member States shall draw up disposal and recycling                     marketing of batteries and accumulators covered by this
programmes in order to achieve the objectives laid down                Directive and conforming to the provisions laid down
in Article 6.                                                         therein with the exception of batteries covered by
                                                                      Article 3.
The first programmes shall cover a four-year period
starting on 1 January 1990. They shall be submitted to
the Commission by 1 July 1989 at the latest.                                                      Article 12
                                                                      The Commission shall adapt Article 4 and the Annex to
The programmes shall be reviewed and updated                           this Directive to technical progress in accordance with
regularly, at least every four years, in particular in the             the procedure set out in Article 12c of Directive
light of technical progress and of the economic situation.             75/442/EEC.
The revised programmes shall also be submitted to the
Commission in good time.
                                                                                                  Article 13
The programmes shall contain at least measures for:                    1.    Member States shall take the measures necessary to
                                                                       comply with this Directive by 1 July 1989. They shall
— promotion of treatmertt processes allowing greater
                                                                       inform the Commission thereof forthwith.
    recycling,
— separate collection of spent batteries and accumu-                   2.    Member States shall communicate to the
    lators,                                                            Commission the texts of the national laws and regu-
                                                                       lations which they adopt in the field covered by this
— separate disposal of spent batteries and accumulators.               Directive. The Commission shall inform the other
                                                                       Member States thereof.
                             Article 10
                                                                                                  Article 14
By way of derogation from Article 11 of Directive
75/442/EEC, Member States shall take measures to                       This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
                                                                ANNEX
                                                      Batteries and accumulators
              This Directive applies to:
               1. all batteries and accumulators put on the market after this Directive enters into force and containing
                  more than 25 mg of mercury per cell, except manganese batteries;
              2. alkaline manganese batteries containing:
                  — from 1 July 1989, more than 0,30 % mercury by weight,
                  — from 1 January 1991, more than 0,15 % mercury by weight,
                  — from 1 January 1993, more than 0,10 % mercury by weight;
              3. from 1 July 1989, batteries and accumulators containing more than 0,025 % cadmium by weight;
              4. batteries and accumulators containing more than 0,4 % of lead.