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The European Directive on Batteries and Accumulators was published on 26 September 2006. It aims to minimise the impact of batteries on the environment and encourage the recovery of the materials they contain
through recycling.
The Battery Directive has been made UK law through two new sets of regulations:
- Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008
- became law in September 2008
- restrictions were placed on the use of mercury and cadmium in batteries
- new batteries must be labelled with the crossed out wheelie bin symbols (shown below) to help consumers choose batteries and recycle them
Cd, Hg and Pb underneath the wheelie bin symbol shows whether the battery contains, cadmium, mercury or lead.
- Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009
- became law on 5 May 2009
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standards were introduced for how batteries should be
recycled and treated
- collection and recycling targets
for waste batteries introduced which affect all producers and retailers of
portable batteries
- all retailers who sell more than
32 kg a year of portable batteries will need to provide free in-store recycling points for
waste batteries from 1st February 2010
UK targets for the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009
| year |
collection target |
| 2012 |
25% |
| 2016 |
45% |
The UK currently collects less than 3% of waste portable batteries, one
of the lowest rates in Europe. So these targets are challenging!
A list of retailers offering free in-store recycling facilities for
waste batteries will be available in 2010 on this site.
Visit the bank locator
to find nearest recycling sites for waste batteries. Just type in your postcode and
select 'batteries'.
Use the following links to find:
which batteries can I recycle?
battery facts
useful links
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