Foundation for a joint take-back system for batteries

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Foundation for a joint take-back system for batteries
legal form	Foundation, endowment
founding	1998
Seat	Hamburg
management	Georgios Chryssos (Board of Directors)
Number of employees	7 (2010)
Branch	recycling
Website	www.grs-batterien.de

The Foundation for the Joint Take-Back System for Batteries , based in Hamburg , was founded by battery manufacturers and the Central Association of the Electrical and Electronics Industry (ZVEI) and has been responsible for taking back and disposing of batteries free of charge in Germany since the Battery Ordinance came into force in October 1998. Until January 2020, the non-profit company was the joint take-back system for portable batteries established by the Federal Environment Ministry in accordance with Section 6 of the Battery Act. Since January 6, 2020, GRS has had a manufacturer's own take-back system and the other four manufacturer's own collection systems (CCR Rebat, ERP Germany, ÖkoReCell and Ecobatt). "Batteries" here mean not only primary batteries , but also accumulators .

GRS Batteries equips retailers, public waste disposal companies, commercial enterprises and public institutions with collection and transport containers for batteries free of charge. GRS Batteries then takes over the collection, sorting and disposal of the old batteries. The foundation also offers individual solutions for taking back industrial batteries. All of these services are financed from the disposal fee contributions from the more than 2,400 battery manufacturers and importers who are contractual partners of GRS Batteries.

Since GRS Batteries started its activity, the recycling rate has increased every year: in 1999, in the first full business year of GRS Batteries, 19 percent of the batteries returned were recycled . In 2003 GRS Batteries reported a recycling rate of 72 percent, in 2005 it was 82 percent. In 2006, GRS Batteries collected 13,138 tonnes of portable batteries, 88 percent of which were recycled. Today over 99 percent of all used batteries collected are recycled. The increase in the recycling share was made possible on the one hand by the continuous decline in the share of alkaline-manganese and zinc-carbon batteries containing mercury in the waste stream, and on the other hand by the availability of recycling facilities that can recycle batteries with low mercury content at affordable costs. European battery manufacturers have stopped using mercury in the manufacture of these two battery systems since the 1990s. Since 2001 it has been forbidden to place batteries containing mercury on the market. The only exceptions are button cells .

In 2010, every German returned an average of batteries weighing 178 grams. That corresponds to about eight batteries. Over 14,500 tons of used batteries and accumulators were collected by GRS last year, of which more than 99 percent were recycled. By recycling used batteries and accumulators, zinc , iron , nickel , lead and cadmium in particular are recovered. It can be returned to around 170,000 collection points in retail, recycling yards and in many universities, schools and public institutions. The foundation has taken back over 110,000 tons of old batteries and accumulators in Germany since 1998. With the entry into force of the Battery Act, the market is open for new take-back systems as well as for proprietary systems. In principle, the same legal requirements apply to all systems.

The Foundation for the Joint Take-Back System for Batteries is committed to informing all age groups about battery recycling and to getting children and young people excited about the topic of energy and the environment by having fun and experimenting. The organization offers information materials that can be downloaded free of charge.

Battery law

The Battery Act came into force on December 1, 2009. It implements the European waste battery directive into national law and for the first time contains binding collection targets for commercially available waste batteries - 35 percent by 2012 and 45 percent by 2016. In addition, restrictions on the use of cadmium and mercury are set. The register kept by the Federal Environment Agency ensures that manufacturers, in accordance with the law, take their responsibility for taking back and disposing of their batteries. Since December 1, 2009, manufacturers and importers of batteries and accumulators have only been allowed to place them on the market if they have reported this to the publicly accessible register kept at the Federal Environment Agency and have provided relevant information on how to exercise their product responsibility.

Web links

• www.grs-batterien.de - Foundation for a joint take-back system for batteries

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Return of old batteries: The cards will be reshuffled. In: recyclingnews - the magazine of the recycling industry. January 7, 2020, accessed January 31, 2020 .