Battery Regulation

(108) Considering the environmental impact and the loss of materials due to waste batteries not being separately collected, and consequently not being treated in an environmentally sound way, the collection target for waste portable batteries established under Directive 2006/66/EC should continue to apply and should be gradually increased. In view of the current increase in sales of LMT batteries and the fact that they have a longer lifetime than portable batteries, it is appropriate to set a specific collection target for waste LMT batteries, separate from the collection target applicable to waste portable batteries. Due to the expected development of the market for LMT batteries and portable batteries and increase in their expected lifetime, the methodology for calculating and verifying collection targets should be reviewed in order to better ascertain the actual volume of waste LMT batteries and waste portable batteries available for collection. Therefore, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending such methodology and of amending the collection targets accordingly. It is crucial that a new ‘Available for collection’ methodology maintains or increases the level of environmental ambition with regard to the collection of waste LMT batteries and waste portable batteries compared to the existing methodology. Based on a Joint Research Centre study on alternative collection targets for waste portable and light means of transport batteries, it is estimated that a collection target for waste LMT batteries of 51 % by 31 December 2028 and 61 % by 31 December 2031, calculated on the basis of the quantities of LMT batteries made available on the market in a Member State, will correspond to a collection target for waste LMT batteries of 79 % by 31 December 2028 and 85 % by 31 December 2031, calculated on the basis of the quantities of LMT batteries available for collection in a Member State. The collection targets for waste portable batteries and waste LMT batteries should be reviewed. It should be possible for such review to also address the possibility of adding two sub-categories of portable batteries: rechargeable and non-rechargeable, with separate collection rates. The Commission should prepare a report to accompany those reviews.