Take-back obligation: what do reporting, prevention and awareness exactly mean?
Do you manufacture or import batteries or devices that run on batteries and put them on the Belgian market? Then you are considered to be a 'battery manufacturer’. And therefore, a heavy responsibility is placed on your shoulders. This is summarised under the term ‘extensive producer’s responsibility’, or in short ‘take-back obligation’.
For example, you have to undertake to participate in the collection and recycling of end-of-life batteries and accumulators, also known as waste batteries.
But it doesn’t stop at that:
- You must report thereon to the regional authorities.
- You are expected to do whatever is necessary to ensure that people return as many waste batteries as possible. Awareness-raising, as it is called.
- In addition, you must explain to consumers how to handle batteries responsibly. You also put batteries on the market with a long lifespan. In other words, you have to take preventive action.
Take-back obligation
The take-back obligation - in the interests of the environment and of our society as a whole - really is an imperative. All musts are described in detail in the legislation of the federal government and the 3 regions in our country. The take-back obligation itself is based on European legislation: Directive 2006/66/EC on batteries and accumulators. The obligation to take back waste batteries has been in force in Belgium since 1995.
Do you want to find out more?
Download here, free of charge, the leaflet on the take-back obligation.
Do it yourself - or involve Bebat
As a manufacturer/importer you have two possibilities to comply with your obligations:
- either you draw up an individual plan yourself and comply with all obligations.
- or you join a collective system: Bebat. Then Bebat ensures that you are in order regarding the take-back obligation.
Reporting
In practice, only a few companies opt for an individual system for batteries. This is no coincidence, because then you have to draw up an individual take-back plan and submit it to the government for approval.
In the Flemish region, to OVAM.
In the Brussels-Capital Region and the Walloon Region, you must submit an individual waste prevention and waste management plan for approval to, respectively, Bruxelles Environnement/Leefmilieu Brussel and DSD - Département du Sol et des Déchets.
In it, you describe how, concretely, you comply with the take-back obligation: how exactly you deal with collecting and recycling batteries.
- What is the collection rate you achieve and what is the recycling rate the recyclers you work with attain? The legislation imposes minimum targets that you must reach.
- What preventive measures do you take?
- How do you raise public awareness about waste batteries?
You have to report on this annually to the regional administrations.
As a Bebat participant, you are relieved of all of these obligations!
Bebat
- fulfils your reporting obligation for you, and;
- takes care of your registration with the regional authorities.
Register here online as a Bebat participant.
Awareness-raising and prevention
As part of the 'take-back obligation', you also have a social responsibility. You are expected to help raise awarenessamong the population. After all, everyone can help to collect as many waste batteries as possible. This is a must as there are so many batteries in circulation.
To give you an idea: in 2019, Bebat collected - via 23,514 collection points - 3,624 tons of batteries in 28,915 collections!
The challenge is to minimise the amount of waste batteries that end up in residual waste or in the environment, so that as many can be recycled as possible.
How you make everyone aware of this, is up to you. Every little bit counts.
Bear in mind, however, that awareness-raising campaigns involve relatively significant amounts of energy, time and resources.
As a Bebat participant, your obligation to raise awareness will be fulfilled for you!
Bebat raises awareness on your behalf, through all sorts of channels, and also provides information about prevention.
Through radio and TV campaigns, for example. In 2019, batteries were spotlighted by GEZOCHT IN VLAANDEREN (page in Dutch): 84,713,970 batteries, a campaign in collaboration with OVAM. In the Brussels-Capital Region, too, everyone was called upon to go on a battery hunt together.
All over the country, Bebat distributes boxes to facilitate the collection of batteries. They also come with safety tips.
Moreover, Bebat is constantly present on the Internet via its website and social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn, with more than 20,400 followers. More than 40 blog articles have been published since the start of the blog, mostly on prevention and on how to use batteries safely. These blog articles received extra attention via social media posts. In 2019, Bebat reached 38,000 readers this way.
Special attention is given to children and young people. With Villa Pila, Bebat runs an educational programme for schools that allows children to discover the wonderful world of batteries in a playful way and learn all about their collection and recycling.
In short: become a Bebat participant and you will no longer have to report and raise awareness yourself. Although, of course, you are allowed to do your own 'bit'. A small gesture with a great impact.
