Market consultation Sorting activities

As waste management body, Bebat has been given waste batteries and accumulators a new life for the past 25 years, by organising the collection, sorting and recycling of said batteries and accumulators. The metals and precious materials are extracted and reused as raw materials. Obviously all other substances and materials are equally appropriately processed. We are an environmental organisation with world class collection results. We are committed to making sure these batteries and accumulators are recycled more and more efficiently.

Bebat is keen to gain a better understanding of the current market by making inquiries among operators as to the nature of their sorting activities of waste batteries and accumulators (all chemical families) in combination with the organisation of a parallel educational programme that is embedded in and by extension is translated in terms of the circular economy, ideally in joint consultation with the various educational umbrella organisations for regular education. Bebat is seeking quality, quantity, capacity, availability, technology, networks, (financial) solvency, development time and experience among potential operators. Bebat is also keen to inquire into the technology used in the areas of infrastructure and innovations in order to enable it to respond to the current market situation in Belgium and by extension Europe.

This translates into a market consultation aimed at establishing whether there are operators who, within the Bebat system, are able to sort waste batteries and accumulators according to chemical family with a minimum 99% purity rate. To this end, the operators’ capacity needs to be at least 3,300 tonnes/year. The operators need to have the relevant facilities and hold the appropriate permits and authorisations to be able to carry out these operations. These activities require a class 1 environmental licence. The operators need to have the appropriate investments and the relevant preventive measures in place with a view to protecting human and environmental health for the facility as a whole. Operators also need to be able to offer guarantees that they operate in accordance with the the strictest health & safety standards in the industry, in view of the risk of incidents and the frequent presence of schools and other visitors, such as:

• monitoring and detection systems which allow for any smoke and fire incidents to be tackled very swiftly.
• an EIP team who receives the appropriate practical training on a regular basis.
• certification to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards.

The operators also need to have (a) storage space(s) that is/are licenced  for the storage of at least 3,500 tonnes hazardous waste, i.e. waste batteries (including waste lithium batteries), with an WMS system and a track & trace system which allows them to establish where each recipient with waste batteries and accumulators holding non-compliant content, was collected.

The operators make the recipients ready for transport to be taken to the recyclers. They load the trucks and have an ADR health & safety adviser.

In addition, the operators must be able to organise themselves in such a way to enable daily school visits of pupils from primary and secondary education (the so-called educational programme) as well as students from higher or university education to take place and/or regular informational visits of adults.

This means that the operational activities may be severely disrupted from time to time, the installations need to be kept very clean and tidy, at all times and explanation will need to be given about the sorting process and the importance thereof.

Moreover, the operators’ sorting installations cannot be further than 50 km away from the centre of Belgium [1] or Brussels by road, as the visits as part of the educational programme are key to Bebat’s awareness raising obligations.

[1] Belgium’s geographical centre is situated in Nil-Saint-Vincent (Walhain) in de province of Walloon Brabant (source: https://www.belgium.be/nl/over_belgie/land/geografie).

Any and all discussions, communications, information and conclusions exchanged are on a no obligation basis, covered by the aforesaid confidentiality, and are neither binding on Bebat nor on the operator. Bebat shall assess and arrive at any outcomes or conclusions of the market consultation at its own discretion. These outcomes and/or conclusions are the sole and exclusive property of Bebat, and Bebat can decide freely whether or not to use or develop said outcomes and/or conclusions as part of its own strategies.