Position  Paper    

Distinction  Portable  –  Industrial  –  Automotive  Batteries      

 1. The  Battery  Directive:  actual  situation  

   The  battery  directive1  distinguishes  following  types  of  batteries:    

• Portable  battery  or  accumulator’  means  any  battery,  button  cell,  battery  pack  or  accumulator  that:  

o is  sealed;  and  o can  be  hand-­‐carried;  and  o is  neither  an  industrial  battery  or  accumulator  nor  an  automotive  battery  or  

accumulator.  • Industrial  battery  or  accumulator’  means  any  battery  or  accumulator  designed  for  

exclusively  industrial  or  professional  uses  or  used  in  any  type  of  electric  vehicle.  • Automotive  battery  or  accumulator’  means  any  battery  or  accumulator  used  for  

automotive  starter,  lighting  or  ignition  power.    This  distinction  is  important,  as  it  is  decisive  to  determine  the  liabilities  and  responsibilities,  as  well  operational  as  financial,  of  all  concerned  actors.    In  particular,  the  significance  of  the  classification  of  the  batteries  is  undisputable  for  the  calculation  of  the  collection  target,  as  this  only  applies  to  portable  batteries.  After  several  years  of  experience  in  the  Member  States,  it  seems  that  there  is  particularly  a  problem  to  distinguish  industrial  from  portable  batteries.        

2. Current  application  of  the  definitions      For  the  batteries  put  on  the  market,  the  decision  on  the  classification  is  taken  by  the  producers,  based  upon  a  decision  tree  that  is  explicitly  or  tacitly  approved  by  the  Member  State  and  that  takes  into  account  the  criteria  described  in  the  battery  directive.  The  decision  trees  used  in  the  different  Member  States  are  similar,  with  to  a  larger  or  smaller  extent  some  interpretative  guidance  for  the  producers  on  the  different  criteria.      

                                                                                                               1  Directive  2006/66/EC  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  6  September  2006  on  batteries  and  accumulators  and  waste  batteries  and  accumulators  and  repealing  Directive  91/157/EEC  –  Article  3,  3°-­‐5°-­‐6°    

 

  2  

 For  the  collected  batteries,  the  operational  actors,  e.g.  sorting  or  recycling  facilities,  take  the  decision  on  the  classification.  As  one  of  the  criteria  to  distinguish  industrial  batteries  from  portable  batteries  is  the  intended  use  of  these  batteries  (“designed  for  exclusively  industrial  or  professional  uses”),  and  it  is  impossible  for  these  operational  actors  to  know  the  use  of  the  collected  battery,  they  use  other  criteria,  like:  

• Weight  (varying  per  country  from  1kg  to  5  kg)  • Collection  point  (industrial  collection  points  or  consumer  collection  points)  • Pro  rata  (proportion  industrial  –  portable  batteries  is  the  same  for  collection  as  

for  POM)  • Sample  • …  • A  mix  of  these  criteria  

   

3. Issues  concerning  the  criteria      The  producers  can  relatively  easily  apply  the  actual  definitions  of  the  battery  directive,  as  they  know  in  most  cases  the  intended  use  of  the  batteries  they  put  on  the  market.  It  is  however  much  more  difficult  for  the  operational  actors  to  apply  these  definitions,  as  they  only  receive  the  waste  batteries  and  battery  packs,  without  knowing  the  applications  they  were  used  in.  They  are  obliged  to  use  a  set  of  criteria  (see  above)  that  differs  from  country  to  country.    The  different  interpretations  in  the  Members  States  for  the  classification  of  the  waste  batteries  into  industrial  and  portable  waste  batteries  have  a  serious  impact  on  the  reported  collection  rates.  As  a  consequence,  these  differences  make  it  very  difficult  to  compare  the  figures  of  the  Member  States.  Furthermore,  experience  shows  that  the  application  of  inappropriate  criteria  to  distinguish  the  collected  batteries  leads  to  unrealistic  collection  rates  in  some  Member  States.    Besides  the  collection  rates,  the  interpretation  also  influences  the  financing  of  the  collection  schemes.  The  distinction  criteria  should  ensure  that  the  producers  of  the  batteries  collected  through  the  household  collection  take  the  financial  responsibility  for  the  operational  costs  related  to  the  batteries  they’ve  put  on  the  market.      

4. Eucobat  proposal      The  main  actual  criterion  to  distinguish  portable  batteries  from  industrial  batteries  in  the  definitions  of  the  battery  directive  is  of  intentional  kind  (“designed  for  exclusively  industrial  or  professional  uses”),  which  cannot  be  determined  when  the  batteries  are  collected.  A  full  coherence  in  the  classification  of  the  batteries  put  on  the  market  and  the  collected  batteries  can  for  this  reason  only  be  achieved  by  a  fundamental  review  of  these  definitions.      

 

  3  

In  order  to  distinguish  portable  batteries  from  industrial  waste  batteries,  the  experience  of  the  compliance  schemes  indicates  that  a  weight  limit  of  3  kg  corresponds  to  a  certain  reality  and  could  be  used  as  criterion.  This  appears  clearly  from  a  sample  in  three  countries  on  a  typical  general  household  mix  of  waste  batteries  collected  by  the  compliance  organisations  in  those  countries.  The  figures  indicate  that  a  large  majority  of  the  collected  batteries  from  households  have  a  weight  till  3  kg.      

       

           

 On  the  other  hand,  the  criteria  should  ensure  that  on  the  one  hand  all  the  producers  of  the  batteries  collected  through  the  household  collection  take  the  financial  responsibility  for  the  operational  costs  related  to  the  batteries  they’ve  put  on  the  market,  and  on  the  other  hand  that  all  the  batteries  that  can  be  used  in  private  households  can  be  collected  through  the  collection  schemes  for  portable  batteries.    As  a  consequence,  Eucobat  proposes  to  introduce  following  definitions  of  portable,  industrial  and  automotive  batteries:    

• 'Automotive  battery'  means  any  battery  used  for  automotive  starter,  lighting  or  ignition  power.  

• 'Industrial  battery'  means  any  battery:  o that  is  not  an  automotive  battery,    and  o weighing  more  than  3  kg,  and    o designed  for  exclusively  industrial  or  professional  uses,  and    o that  cannot  be  used  by  private  households,  

OR  o used  for  the  propulsion  of  any  type  of  electric  vehicle  (excluding  electric  

bicycles)  

6a. Definitions P-I-A: Sampling

Weight&per&ba7ery&(kg)& Number&Ba7eries Total&&Weight

0,00&W&1,00& 43% 17% 1,01&W&2,00& 16% 15% 2,01&W&3,00& 27% 35% 3,01&W&4,00& 5% 8% 4,01&W&5,00& 2% 4% 5,01&W&…& 6% 21%

100% 100%

67%&87%&

Belgium&Weight&per&ba7ery&(kg)' Number&of&ba7eries' Total&Weight'

0,00&W&1,00& 96,6%&

1,01&W&2,00& 1,2%&

2,01&W&3,00&

2,1%&3,01&W&4,00&

4,01&W&5,00&

5,01&W&…&

100,0%&

97,8%&

Germany&

Weight&per&ba7ery&(kg)' Number&of&ba7eries' Total&Weight'0,00&W&1,00&

99,9%&1,01&W&2,00&2,01&W&3,00&3,01&W&4,00&

0,1%&4,01&W&5,00&5,01&W&…&

100,0%&

Netherlands&

6a. Definitions P-I-A: Sampling

Weight&per&ba7ery&(kg)& Number&Ba7eries Total&&Weight

0,00&W&1,00& 43% 17% 1,01&W&2,00& 16% 15% 2,01&W&3,00& 27% 35% 3,01&W&4,00& 5% 8% 4,01&W&5,00& 2% 4% 5,01&W&…& 6% 21%

100% 100%

67%&87%&

Belgium&Weight&per&ba7ery&(kg)' Number&of&ba7eries' Total&Weight'

0,00&W&1,00& 96,6%&

1,01&W&2,00& 1,2%&

2,01&W&3,00&

2,1%&3,01&W&4,00&

4,01&W&5,00&

5,01&W&…&

100,0%&

97,8%&

Germany&

Weight&per&ba7ery&(kg)' Number&of&ba7eries' Total&Weight'0,00&W&1,00&

99,9%&1,01&W&2,00&2,01&W&3,00&3,01&W&4,00&

0,1%&4,01&W&5,00&5,01&W&…&

100,0%&

Netherlands&

6a. Definitions P-I-A: Sampling

Weight'per'ba,ery'(kg)' Number'Ba,eries Total''Weight

0,00';'1,00' 43% 17% 1,01';'2,00' 16% 15% 2,01';'3,00' 27% 35% 3,01';'4,00' 5% 8% 4,01';'5,00' 2% 4% 5,01';'…' 6% 21%

100% 100%

67%'87%'

Belgium'Weight'per'ba,ery'(kg)! Number'of'ba,eries! Total'Weight!

0,00';'1,00' 96,6%'

1,01';'2,00' 1,2%'

2,01';'3,00'

2,1%'3,01';'4,00'

4,01';'5,00'

5,01';'…'

100,0%'

97,8%'

Germany'

Weight'per'ba,ery'(kg)! Number'of'ba,eries! Total'Weight!0,00';'1,00'

99,9%'1,01';'2,00'2,01';'3,00'3,01';'4,00'

0,1%'4,01';'5,00'5,01';'…'

100,0%'

Netherlands'

 

  4  

• ‘Portable  battery’  means  any  battery  that  is  neither  an  industrial  battery  nor  an  automotive  battery  (including  batteries  of  electric  bicycles).  

 For  the  definition  of  “electric  bicycles”,  we  propose  to  refer  to  the  Directive  2002/24  of  18  March  2002  relating  to  the  type-­‐approval  of  two  or  three-­‐wheel  motor  vehicles  and  repealing  Council  Directive  92/61/EEC,  which  describes  these  bicycles  as    “cycles  with  pedal  assistance  which  are  equipped  with  an  auxiliary  electric  motor  having  a  maximum  continuous  rated  power  of  0,25  kW,  of  which  the  output  is  progressively  reduced  and  finally  cut  off  as  the  vehicle  reaches  a  speed  of  25  km/h,  or  sooner,  if  the  cyclist  stops  pedalling  ”.      

5. About  Eucobat      Eucobat  aisbl  is  the  European  association  of  national  collection  schemes  for  batteries.  They  assure  that  all  waste  batteries  are  collected  and  recycled  in  an  ecological  sound  way,  and  contribute  this  way  to  a  better  environment.        Eucobat  aisbl  September  2014