Environment chiefs battle over ban on NiCad batteries

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 16/12/04

EU ENVIRONMENT ministers will fight over rules for battery recycling and a ban on nickel cadmium (NiCad) batteries on Monday (20 December), but the European Commission has warned it will overrule any proposal which weakens environmental protection.

Under the proposal - known as the EU battery directive - member states will have to collect and recycle the 160,000 tonnes of portable batteries placed annually on the EU market to prevent their harmful substances being released into the environment.

EU ambassadors discussed two options on Monday (13 December) regarding the ban on cadmium, a human carcinogen, in batteries proposed by the European Parliament at first reading in April this year.

The first option would be to ban the use of cadmium in portable batteries used in power tools, which account for 70% of cadmium battery production, with a seven-year phase-out period.

The second, which one diplomat told European Voice is garnering most favour among member states, is to exempt power tools from the cadmium phase-out, but to review the situation after four years.

The power-tool lobby claims that there is no commercial alternative to the batteries used in their appliances, but green groups say that there are already companies producing replacement nickel-zinc batteries.

Linked to this dispute is the 'collection rate', or the number of batteries member states will have to recover.

Under a Dutch presidency compromise, this rate has been cut to 40%, achievable seven years after the implementation date, while MEPs demanded 50% - and 60% after ten years - and the Commission proposal required 40% after four years.

Insiders say that member states that currently have a poor or no collection system in place, including the UK, Italy and Poland, have said that they will support the cadmium ban for power tools in return for a reduced collection rate.

But an EU official says that the Commission would only accept a solution that protects the environment as much as its original proposal, which did not include a cadmium ban but had more stringent rules for collecting and monitoring battery disposal.

"It's doubtful that we would accept a proposal which allowed the use of cadmium batteries in power tools as well as a 40% collection rate after seven years," the official said.

If the Commission rejects any of the ministers' amendments on Monday, the amendment in question must have unanimous support to override the EU executive.

The industry says that it supports the ministers' deal on collection rates, but it claims that horse-trading has eclipsed the real problem, which is financing the recovery of batteries.

Under the proposal, battery producers must pay for the collection, transport and recycling of the batteries they place on the market.

"The reason that the last battery directive in 1991 failed was because of the lack of a financial mechanism," said Rachel Barlow, of the European Portable Battery Association. "There are punitive measures in this directive for producers that fail to recover their batteries but we have no contractual relationship with consumers or local authorities to ensure that portable batteries are brought to a municipal collection point for proper disposal," she said.

Preview of a Council meeting on 20 December 2004 where the EU battery directive, legislation on collection and recycling of portable batteries and a ban on nickel cadmium batteries are to be discussed.