Battery Regulation

As part of the ongoing review of the Battery Regulation, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published a new study examining alternative collection targets for waste portable batteries.

The study concludes that, given the increasing durability of portable batteries, the gap between the amount of batteries put on market and the amount of batteries available for collection will increase significantly in the coming years. As a result, the proposed collection targets, which are based on the put on market volumes of the three preceding years, would be disproportionately high. Therefore, it makes sense to consider alternative calculation methods that take into account the amount of batteries actually available for collection – for portable batteries and the newly in scope batteries for light means of transport.

Landbell Group company European Recycling Platform (ERP) agrees that the calculation method urgently needs to be adjusted, otherwise the new collection targets will not be achievable. ERP had already made this point in a detailed position paper on the Commission’s legislative proposal in March.

Based on this paper, ERP has recently developed concrete proposals for amendments and sent them to the relevant members of the European Parliament as well as representatives of the member states.

In this amended paper, ERP proposes among others:

• a revision of the collection targets,
• a change in the definitions of terms such as portable and industrial batteries, and
• amended conditions for producer responsibility organisations’ authorisations.

The final plenary vote on the new Battery Regulation in the European Parliament is scheduled for February 2022.