The EU has today (July 10, 2023) adopted a new regulation that strengthens sustainability rules for batteries and waste batteries.
The regulation will regulate batteries from production to reuse and recycling, ensuring they are safe, sustainable and competitive, and will ensure producers will cover the cost of waste batteries.
Paul O’Brien, chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA) Environment Committee, said it is important that farmers are mindful of how they should dispose of batteries that have been used on farms.
“I am encouraging every farmer to use the battery recycling facility that’s available this year,” he said.
According to Teresa Ribera, Spanish minister for the ecological transition, end-of-life batteries “contain many valuable resources and we must be able to reuse those critical raw materials instead of relying on third countries for supplies”.
The new regulation of the European Parliament and the Council will apply to all batteries including:
- All waste portable batteries;
- Electric vehicle batteries;
- Industrial batteries;
- Starting, lightning and ignition (SLI) batteries (used mostly for vehicles and machinery);
- Batteries for light means of transport (e.g. electric bikes, e-mopeds, e-scooters).
The new rules aim to regulate batteries throughout their life cycle by establishing end-of-life requirements, collection targets and obligations, targets for the recovery of materials and extended producer responsibility.
The regulation will also set targets for producers to collect waste portable batteries (63% by the end of 2027 and 73% by the end of 2030).
It will introduce a collection objective for waste batteries for light means of transport (51% by the end of 2028 and 61% by the end of 2031) and set a target for lithium recovery from waste batteries of 50% by the end of 2027 and 80% by the end of 2031.
There will also be tighter restrictions introduced for hazardous substances like mercury, cadmium and lead and mandatory information on the carbon footprint of batteries.
Batteries on farms
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Ireland has operated a scheme for the management of waste batteries in Ireland since 2008, when the European Union directive on batteries came into force.
Around 10% of the overall batteries collected by WEEE Ireland are farm fence batteries.
Farmers can drop waste batteries at free recycling at any local authority recycling centres or from also from stores where batteries were purchased.
If farmers want to get rid of their farm fence batteries, classed as industrial batteries, the regulation states that: “The producers of SLI batteries, industrial batteries and electric vehicle batteries should be required to accept and take back free of charge, all waste batteries for their respective category from end-users.”