A look into the future

As you know, Bebat offers to provide support to companies that put batteries on the Belgian market, in order to help them to comply with the legal take-back obligation.

Specifically for batteries, Bebat deals with the following:

Bebat has found that the existing processes can be simplified and that such simplification is necessary in order to continue to guarantee the delivery of good service. For example, the number of participants has increased sharply, expectations of an easy-to-use (digital) service are rising, and audits have revealed that participants have difficulty in correctly applying the rules. It is therefore time for Bebat to act.

A look at the innovation project

In order to simplify the processes that Bebat participants must go through to comply with the take-back obligation, Bebat collaborated with the innovation group Leap Forward between November 2019 and June 2020.

We worked in two main stages:

1. A survey of participants through three focus groups on the one hand and an online survey on the other hand, to identify the problem areas and the opportunities.
2. Together with Bebat employees who work each day on behalf of the participants, we developed appropriate solutions for the challenges identified.

Participants shared their views on the subject, providing us with a lot of information. Here are the main ones:

1. First of all, participants would like to see a simplification of the administrative processes, because
   • Participants often have too little information and knowledge about the batteries they declare;
   • they are not sure how to calculate correctly the number of batteries to declare.
2. The myBatbase platform could be more intuitive and orderly.
3. Participants are aware of the environmental impact of batteries and they are motivated to do their part. They would therefore like to receive more information from Bebat about what is achieved with their membership fees.
4. Participants face unfair competition from free riders.

1. “Declaring batteries: as simple as can be".

1. For all participants
   • Retroactive declaration for new participants: no longer delve into the quantities placed on the market over the past three years; instead, the quantities of the previous year can be used for the previous two years as well;
   • Consolidation of all information for participants in a handy brochure;
   • Avoid using specialized terminology and be consistent;
   • Simplification of questions in the online audit;
   • Concrete tips in the audit report to easily prevent mistakes in the future;
   • Simplify the use of the myBatbase platform.
      
2.  In addition, for participants making monthly declarations
   • Simplification of the monthly nomenclature: the aim is to reduce significantly the quantity of nomenclature numbers. The definition of the nomenclature becomes more intuitive because overlaps between categories are now a thing of the past. However, Bebat is awaiting the revision of the European Battery Directive, which may impose new reporting requirements. If everything is clarified quickly, the new nomenclature would be introduced as of 01/01/2021, and failing that as of 01/01/2022. In any case, Bebat will inform participants in good time. 
   • Tutorials to provide support for submitting declarations.
      
3. In addition, for participants who make an annual declaration
   • Development of a return wizard: a new tool to obtain in a few clicks the correct nomenclature numbers and quantities.
   • The declaration form on myBatbase will be easier to fill in.
   • The online audit questionnaire is shorter, restructured and clearly framed.

2. “My competitors are also participants, that’s fair”

The study showed that participants found it important that their competitors should also be affiliated to Bebat. This is also very important to us. Which is why we have carried out several actions over the past few years. However, we have not communicated a great deal about them to participants.

Below you will find an overview of the actions that Bebat has undertaken in recent years and in which Bebat intends to invest more: 

• Bebat employees surf the internet for companies, exhibition lists and other participants and contact them.
• Bebat has created a practical brochure on the take-back obligation that is distributed through company branches to raise awareness among new companies.
• Bebat undertakes actions on social networks for potential participants.
• Bebat has created an online test where companies can check whether they are subject to the take-back obligation.
• There is also a dedicated collaborator within OVAM who tracks battery flows and encourages companies that do not yet apply the take-back obligation to comply.

“Unbelievable what Bebat can collect, recycle and recover with my membership fee".

This year, we will make an even greater effort to clarify the results that we achieve thanks to participant returns and fees. In particular, we want to inform participants about their own environmental impact: how many and what substances can be recovered from the batteries they declare in their returns and what Bebat does with them.