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 (Text with EEA relevance)

• Published date: 26 September 2006
• Official Gazette Publication: Gazzetta ufficiale dell’Unione europea, L 266, 26 settembre 2006,Diario Oficial de la Unión Europea, L 266, 26 de septiembre de 2006,Journal officiel de l’Union européenne, L 266, 26 septembre 2006

02006L0066 — EN — 04.07.2018 — 004.001

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►B 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 (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 266 26.9.2006, p. 1)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
M1	DIRECTIVE 2008/12/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 11 March 2008	L 76	39	19.3.2008
M2	DIRECTIVE 2008/103/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 19 November 2008	L 327	7	5.12.2008
►M3	DIRECTIVE 2013/56/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 20 November 2013	L 329	5	10.12.2013
►M4	DIRECTIVE (EU) 2018/849 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 30 May 2018	L 150	93	14.6.2018

Corrected by:

►C1 Corrigendum, OJ L 311, 10.11.2006, p. 58 (2006/66/EC)

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▼B

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

(Text with EEA relevance)

Article 1

Subject-matter

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.

It seeks to improve the environmental performance of batteries and accumulators and of the activities of all economic 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.

Article 2

Scope

1. This Directive shall apply to all types of batteries and accumulators, regardless of their shape, volume, weight, material composition or use. It shall apply without prejudice to Directives 2000/53/EC and 2002/96/EC.

2. This Directive shall not apply to batteries and accumulators used in:

(a) equipment connected with the protection of Member States' essential security interests, arms, munitions and war material, with the exclusion of products that are not intended for specifically military purposes;

(b) equipment designed to be sent into space.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) ‘battery’ or ‘accumulator’ means any source of electrical energy generated by direct conversion of chemical energy and consisting of one or more primary battery cells (non-rechargeable) or consisting of one or more secondary battery cells (rechargeable);

(2) ‘battery pack’ means any set of batteries or accumulators that are connected together and/or encapsulated within an outer casing so as to form a complete unit that the end-user is not intended to split up or open;

(3) ‘portable battery or accumulator’ means any battery, button cell, battery pack or accumulator that:

(a) is sealed; and

(b) can be hand-carried; and

(c) is neither an industrial battery or accumulator nor an automotive battery or accumulator;

(4) ‘button cell’ means any small round portable battery or accumulator whose diameter is greater than its height and which is used for special purposes such as hearing aids, watches, small portable equipment and back-up power;

(5) ‘automotive battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator used for automotive starter, lighting or ignition power;

(6) ‘industrial battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator designed for exclusively industrial or professional uses or used in any type of electric vehicle;

(7) ‘waste battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator which is waste within the meaning of Article 1(1)(a) of Directive 2006/12/EC;

(8) ‘recycling’ means the reprocessing in a production process of waste materials for their original purpose or for other purposes, but excluding energy recovery;

(9) ‘disposal’ means any of the applicable operations provided for in Annex IIA to Directive 2006/12/EC;

(10) ‘treatment’ means any activity carried out on waste batteries and accumulators after they have been handed over to a facility for sorting, preparation for recycling or preparation for disposal;

(11) ‘appliance’ means any electrical or electronic equipment, as defined by Directive 2002/96/EC, which is fully or partly powered by batteries or accumulators or is capable of being so;

(12) ‘producer’ means any person in a Member State that, irrespective of the selling technique used, including by means of distance communication as defined in Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the protection of consumers in respect of distance contracts ( 1 ), places batteries or accumulators, including those incorporated into appliances or vehicles, on the market for the first time within the territory of that Member State on a professional basis;

(13) ‘distributor’ means any person that provides batteries and accumulators on a professional basis to an end-user;

(14) ‘placing on the market’ means supplying or making available, whether in return for payment or free of charge, to a third party within the Community and includes import into the customs territory of the Community;

(15) ‘economic operators’ means any producer, distributor, collector, recycler or other treatment operator;

(16) ‘cordless power tool’ means any hand held appliance powered by a battery or accumulator and intended for maintenance, construction or gardening activities;

(17) ‘collection rate’ means, for a given Member State in a given calendar year, the percentage obtained by dividing the weight of waste portable batteries and accumulators collected in accordance with Article 8(1) of this Directive or with Directive 2002/96/EC in that calendar year by the average weight of portable batteries and accumulators that producers either sell directly to end-users or deliver to third parties in order to sell them to end-users in that Member State during that calendar year and the preceding two calendar years.

Article 4

Prohibitions

1. Without prejudice to Directive 2000/53/EC, Member States shall prohibit the placing on the market of:

(a) all batteries or accumulators, whether or not incorporated into appliances, that contain more than 0,0005 % of mercury by weight; and

(b) portable batteries or accumulators, including those incorporated into appliances, that contain more than 0,002 % of cadmium by weight.

▼M3

2. The prohibition set out in paragraph 1(a) shall not apply to button cells with a mercury content of no more than 2 % by weight until 1 October 2015.

▼B

3. The prohibition set out in paragraph 1(b) shall not apply to portable batteries and accumulators intended for use in:

(a) emergency and alarm systems, including emergency lighting;

(b) medical equipment; or

▼M3

(c) cordless power tools; this exemption in respect of cordless power tools shall apply until 31 December 2016.

4. As regards button cells for hearing aids, the Commission shall maintain under review the exemption referred to in paragraph 2 and report to the European Parliament and the Council on the availability of button cells for hearing aids which are in compliance with paragraph 1(a) no later than 1 October 2014. Where justified due to the lack of availability of button cells for hearing aids which are in compliance with paragraph 1(a), the Commission shall accompany its report by an appropriate proposal with a view to extending the exemption referred to in paragraph 2 with regard to button cells for hearing aids.

▼B

Article 5

Increased environmental performance

Member States which have manufacturers established on their territory shall promote research and encourage improvements in the overall environmental performance of batteries and accumulators throughout their entire life cycle as well as the development and marketing of batteries and accumulators which contain smaller quantities of dangerous substances or which contain less polluting substances, in particular as substitutes for mercury, cadmium and lead.

Article 6

Placing on the market

1. Member States shall not, on the grounds dealt with in this Directive, impede, prohibit, or restrict the placing on the market in their territory of batteries and accumulators that meet the requirements of this Directive.

▼M3

2. Batteries and accumulators which do not meet the requirements of this Directive, but which were lawfully placed on the market prior to the date of application of the respective prohibitions in Article 4, may continue to be marketed until stocks are exhausted.

▼B

Article 7

Overarching objective

Member States shall, having regard to the environmental impact of transport, take necessary measures to maximise the separate collection of waste batteries and accumulators and to minimise the disposal of batteries and accumulators as mixed municipal waste in order to achieve a high...