Press Release: Batteries: Commission welcomes political agreement in the Council

The European Commission welcomed the swift political agreement reached 20 December 2004 by the EU's Environment Council on a proposed new Directive on batteries and accumulators. The Directive aims at collecting and recycling all waste batteries and at preventing their incineration and disposal. Waste batteries can cause environmental and health problems due to the heavy metals that they contain. The agreement includes the setting of binding collection and recycling targets, and a partial ban on portable (i.e. consumer) cadmium batteries.

European Commission: DG Environment: Policies: Waste: Batteries http://ec.europa.eu/comm/environment/waste/batteries/index.htm

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