Separate collection · Art. 13(4)
Every battery carries this symbol (Annex VI Part B): collect separately, never with household waste.
Cd / Pb marking · Art. 13(5)
On the substances declared for this battery, no Cd or Pb marking is required (cadmium not above 0,002 %, lead not above 0,004 %).
Your role in separate collection · Art. 74(1)(b)
Waste batteries must be collected separately and never discarded with unsorted municipal waste. Hand this battery in at a collection point, a distributor taking batteries back, or an authorised treatment facility. Separate collection is what makes recycling and material recovery possible, and it is an obligation on the end user under Art. 64 of Reg. (EU) 2023/1542.
Safety instructions for handling waste batteries · Art. 74(1)(d)
Do not open, pierce, crush, cut or burn a waste battery, and do not expose it to water or to high temperatures. Tape over or otherwise insulate the terminals of lithium batteries before handing them in: a short circuit can cause a fire that is hard to extinguish. Store waste batteries in a cool, dry place away from flammable material, keep visibly damaged, swollen or leaking batteries apart from the rest, and report them at the collection point.
What the labels and symbols mean · Art. 74(1)(e)
The crossed-out wheeled bin means the battery must be collected separately and must not go into household waste. The chemical symbols Cd and Pb, where present, mean the battery contains more than 0,002 % cadmium or more than 0,004 % lead. The capacity marking states the rated capacity; a non-rechargeable battery is labelled as such together with its minimum average duration. The same symbols may appear on the packaging or in the documents accompanying the battery.
Impact of the substances in batteries · Art. 74(1)(f)
Batteries contain substances — among them heavy metals such as cadmium, lead, nickel and cobalt, and reactive electrolytes — that harm soil, water and living organisms if they escape into the environment, and that can harm human health on contact or through the food chain. Littering a battery, or discarding it as unsorted municipal waste, releases those substances and also destroys materials that could have been recovered. Lithium batteries additionally ignite when damaged or short-circuited, which is a documented cause of fires in bins and waste-collection vehicles.
