Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-12-Speech-1-075"
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"en.20051212.14.1-075"2
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".
Mr President, the process of storing and releasing energy requires the presence of many metals and toxic compounds that play a part in the functioning of batteries and accumulators. Batteries constitute a particularly hazardous category of municipal waste, since many of their components have an adverse impact on both the environment and human health. The binning of billions of spent batteries, which then end up in municipal landfills and in groundwater, represents a particular threat when they contain cadmium, lead or mercury.
Battery collection schemes have been a success in several Member States thanks to diverse and long-standing endeavours. Poland is starting from a much less advantageous position where such collections are concerned, however, as it is less advanced in terms of technology and information provision. This situation is aggravated by the fact that manufacturers and distributors prefer to pay a product fee rather than to take steps to collect and recycle batteries. Thanks to the efforts of environmentalists, containers for spent batteries can now be found in many institutions, and even more progress has been made with the collection of accumulators.
The amendments to the Directive ensure that any negative impact of batteries and accumulators on the environment is kept to a minimum, as well as prohibiting the use of cadmium and mercury. At the same time, however, some of the changes could make accumulator manufacturers in the EU much less competitive than manufacturers outside Europe who do not have to comply with such restrictive regulations. This will mean not only lower-quality batteries and accumulators, but also lower prices. The end result of this could be a threat to the environment and to the health of users, in particular young children."@en1
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