“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” was published in the Official Journal on 26th September 2006 (OJ L266 Vol 49).

This Directive prohibits the placing on the market of certain batteries and accumulators containing mercury or cadmium. It also promotes a high level of collection and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators and improved environmental performance of all operators involved in the life cycle of batteries and accumulators, e.g. producers, distributors and end-users and, in particular, those operators directly involved in the treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators.

This Directive should apply to all batteries and accumulators placed on the market within the Community. Such batteries and accumulators can be collected individually, by way of national battery collection schemes or together with waste electrical and electronic equipment, by way of national collection schemes set up on the basis of Directive 2002/96/EC. In the latter case, as an obligatory minimum treatment requirement, batteries and accumulators should be removed from the collected waste electrical and electronic equipment. After their removal from the waste electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and accumulators are subject to the requirements of this Directive, notably they count for achieving the collection target and are subject to recycling requirements.

This Directive establishes:

(1) rules regarding the placing on the market of batteries and accumulators and, in particular, a prohibition on the placing on the market of batteries and accumulators containing hazardous substances; and

(2) specific rules for the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of waste batteries and accumulators to supplement relevant Community legislation on waste and to promote a high level of collection and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators.

Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 26 September 2008.

The full text of the Directive is available from:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/l_266/l_26620060926en00010014.pdf

Source: http://eur-lex.europa.eu (accessed 03/10/06)

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