Michael Bader moved to Montenegro from Germany 14 years ago. He opened apartments in Utjeha bay between Bar and Ulcinj. From the European Union (EU) in 2012, he was the first of a total of 12 people in Montenegro to receive the Ecolabel certificate, as an expert who is familiar with and implements environmental standards.
Bader noticed that the guests leave behind a large number of spent batteries, so, given that it is hazardous waste and guided by experience from Germany, he turned to the Communal Company in Bar, asking where to bring them. They told him that they did not have the conditions for it.
"Since there is no system of disposal and recycling of batteries, I put a box in which the guests and I dispose of them. The neighbors got used to it, so instead of throwing them away, they leave the batteries at my place,'' says Bader in an interview with the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) and Monitor.
Several times a year he went to Germany and carried batteries there.
"There, in every city there is a recycling center for hazardous waste - tires, computers, batteries, white goods and more. Such waste is collected there free of charge. A system is organized so that stores take over used batteries," says Bader.
Eight years later, to Bader's repeated question, CIN-CG/Monitor received a similar answer from the Bar utilities:
"In the Rulebook on waste classification and waste catalog - accumulators and waste batteries are classified as hazardous waste and considering that we are not registered to perform this type of activity, we do not have the conditions for collection and further treatment".
Although about 50 tons of batteries enter and are used in Montenegro annually, only a few hundred kilograms are returned abroad through authorized companies for recycling or safe disposal.
Most of it ends up in municipal waste, which represents a huge risk to the environment and human health. Distributors and sellers, despite the legal obligation copied from the EU, generally do not take over used batteries at places where new ones are purchased, and there are few recycling centers that do so - CIN-CG/Monitor's research showed.
Both in EU legislation and domestic legislation, batteries are treated as hazardous waste. They can contain dangerous substances - lead, cadmium and mercury. Heavy metals have far-reaching negative effects on the environment and human health. Through the process of decay and breakdown, heavy metals go into the ground, but also into underground water, and then into the food chain. On the other hand, if they are burned, heavy metals reach the air in the form of small particles, and further into the soil and water.
Batteries, accumulators, soot, paint, varnish and glue waste, motor oils, pecticides... are some of the dangerous waste with which we are often in contact, reminds biologist Vuk Iković from the KOD Organization.
"There is no organized separation of waste here. Thus, hazardous waste is often mixed with non-hazardous waste. When you dispose of alkaline batteries or engine oil packaging in a container with regular municipal waste, the entire contents of that container take on the characteristics of hazardous. This increases the risk of pollution and increases the cost of waste management,'' says Iković for CIN-CG/Monitor.
He reminds that fines for waste mixing and improper disposal range from 1.000 to 40.000 euros. The Environmental Inspection, however, does not have precise data on the imposed penalties, which, judging by the answers to CIN-CG/Monitor's questions, mainly refer to the illegal collection and handling of batteries for motor vehicles and other purposes.
"In accordance with the Law on Waste Management, the environmental inspection initiates misdemeanor proceedings. Even in the previous period, there were misdemeanor proceedings related, among other types of waste, to the illegal management of waste batteries-accumulators (collection without a permit, delivery of waste to an unauthorized collector, improper storage at the collection location, etc.), but records are not kept in such a way that we could distinguish the number of procedures by type of waste,'' Veselinka Zarubica, chief environmental inspector of the Department for Environmental Inspection of the Directorate for Inspection Affairs, told CIN-CG/Monitor.
During 2018 and 2019, according to data from the Customs Administration (UC), more than 1,3 million primary batteries were imported. The difference between primary and secondary batteries is that secondary batteries can be recharged, while primary batteries have a significantly shorter lifespan. Monstat's data is somewhat different from UC and says that more than 2018 primary batteries were imported in 700.000, 2019 in 875, and 716 from January to November last year. Accumulators for motor vehicles and other purposes are imported significantly more: 2018 million in 4,7, 2019 million in 4,4, and 3,5 million from the beginning to November of last year. It is certain that part of the batteries intended for the household arrive beyond the customs procedure and are sold outside the official channels at markets and flea markets. Monstat does not have data or estimates on how many disposable batteries a household consumes per year, as well as the amount of batteries and accumulators that end up in waste, they told CIN-CG/Monitor.
That is why only comparison is possible. The specialized portal Balkan Green Energy News, which follows the topics of sustainable development and ecology, cites statistical data showing that a household of four in Serbia consumes 20 batteries per year. In Montenegro, with almost 200.000 households, this could mean that about four million batteries with dangerous substances, or about 50 tons, end up in waste every year.
Vasilije Seferović, executive director of DOO Čistoća Herceg Novi, told CIN-CG/Monitor that they collect about 330 kilograms of batteries annually. But, they specify, these are exclusively batteries used by Čistoća in the work process. They do not select batteries from the total amount of waste that is collected, and they are not even registered for that.
Data from the Waste Management Department of Čistoće doo Podgorica show that the awareness of hazardous waste disposal is not sufficiently developed. From January to the end of October last year, only 62 kilograms of batteries were disposed of at the six recycling yards they manage.
"They are temporarily stored at recycling yards, in containers specially intended for this type of waste. After the capacities are filled, they are handed over to companies that have a license to manage this type of waste, from the line ministries," said Čistoca from Podgorica to CIN-CG/Monitor. The Bar company Hemosan, which collects hazardous waste, says that in 2020, 291 kilograms of batteries were collected. They are temporarily stored and then exported to EU countries.
"In the action we organized together with the Idea trade chain and the Faculty of Business Economics and Law (from Bar), we collected old batteries in 2019, and last year with the distributor S plus," says Hemosan director Zoran Nikitović.
In this company, they do not have the exact export price, because the batteries were shipped with other hazardous waste. They estimate, however, that 15 tons of batteries could be collected at the level of Montenegro, and the export would cost up to 20.000 euros.
"In Austria they destroy batteries, while in Germany they recycle them," says Nikitović. Several hundred thousand tons of industrial and portable batteries reach the EU market every year. Approximately - 800 thousand tons of automotive, 190 thousand tons of industrial and 160 thousand tons of consumer batteries.
In case there is no viable end market for recycled products, or if a detailed environmental, agricultural and social impact assessment determines that recycling is not the best solution, EU countries can dispose of waste portable batteries containing cadmium, mercury or lead in landfills or in underground warehouses.
The management of this type of waste in Montenegro is regulated by the Law on Waste Management.
"According to the law, waste batteries and accumulators that, in accordance with the waste catalog, are not municipal waste, are handed over to a company or entrepreneur that performs the activity of collecting, processing or disposing of special types of waste. Waste batteries and accumulators, which constitute municipal waste, are handed over to places designated for this type of waste as part of the separate collection of municipal waste, or to places designated for the collection of this type of waste at distributors," explains Chief Environmental Inspector Zarubica. According to Zarubica, in practice, only the collection of waste batteries works.
"Most batteries are returned to recycling through the purchase of secondary raw materials. Also, a significant amount of waste batteries is collected through the actions of battery distributors who give a certain discount when buying a new battery if the old one is returned".
The fact that the used accumulators are handed over to the seller, while receiving a discount on the purchased new one, is also for Seferović one of the good examples of implementing recycling. Zarubica confirms that the collection of batteries used in electrical and electronic devices has not been significantly improved.
"The reason is primarily that this type of waste is created in small quantities that are not interesting to collectors of secondary raw materials. Certain quantities are collected through a selective waste collection system established by some companies".
According to data from the website of the Environmental Protection Agency, only Hemosan has received a permit for the export of hazardous waste this year.
During the last year, in addition to this company, Valgo Montenegro (for the export of soil and stone containing dangerous substances), Matej - Cetinje (for waste mineral oil) and SS Alga Nikšić (for waste lead batteries filled with acid) had permits.
"During the last year, permits were issued for the export of 3.000 tons of accumulators and batteries," Bojan Bašanović from the Environmental Protection Agency told CIN-CG/Monitor.
Most often, waste batteries are exported to Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. According to the current classification, even the Agency does not have information regarding household batteries.
The Agency notes that there is no official company in Montenegro that deals with the processing (processing) of accumulators and lead batteries.
Hemosan explains that the recycling process implies a physical process of treating used batteries and usually consists of "sorting, magnetic separation, disassembly and grinding (crushing)".
Metal scraps can be processed by different processes, pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical. The products of these processes are metal alloys or solutions containing metal ions.
In the National Strategy for the Implementation and Application of the EU Acquis in the Environmental Field 2016-2020. it is pointed out that "in the waste management system, the basic principles on which waste management in the EU is based have not yet been fully applied in Montenegro, although they have been integrated into the 25th National Waste Management Strategy and the National Waste Management Plan".
This document states that the requirements established by Directive 93/86/EEC (battery labeling) from 1993, and partly by Directive 2006/66/EC (batteries and accumulators) from 2006, were not respected.
The most important goal of the directive from 2006 is that "the member states, taking into account the impact on the environment, take the necessary measures in order to, as much as possible, carry out the separate collection of waste batteries and accumulators and to reduce the disposal of batteries and accumulators as mixed municipal waste with the aim of achieving a high level of recycling of all waste batteries and accumulators".
The lowest collection rates to be achieved by member states are also prescribed: 25 percent by September 26, 2012, 45 percent by 2016. Montenegro has practically not even started yet. The data published by the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism in December last year in the National Implementation Plan of the Minimatic Convention on Mercury for the period 2021-2025 also show that something should be done urgently. It states that the main source of mercury release is the illegal disposal of municipal waste (940 kg of mercury per year) and waste disposal (692 kg of mercury per year).
According to the June 2012 Decree on the method and procedure for establishing a system for taking over, collecting and processing dangerous batteries and accumulators, distributors have numerous obligations that they clearly do not comply with. Waste portable batteries and accumulators should be collected free of charge at the point of sale, regardless of their origin and without the condition of purchasing a new portable battery or accumulator. Containers for the separate collection and temporary storage of collected waste portable batteries and accumulators should be placed and visibly marked.
"The Law on Waste Management stipulates an obligation for importers/producers of products that generate special types of waste to join an organized system of collection, collection and processing. Unfortunately, these systems are not organized", says Zarubica.
"We have no idea about that," they were surprised at the Idea store in Podgorica when we asked them if we could leave used batteries with them. In the Voli store, they said that we need to talk to the management, so they referred to their Board of Directors. The answers to the questions of CIN-CG/Monitor did not arrive. Last year, research by the large Swedish company IKEA showed that, if batteries are not disposed of properly, they have an immeasurable and long-term impact on the environment due to their contents. It was decided to remove all alkaline batteries from use and sale by October 2021 and replace them with rechargeable ones, which are significantly less harmful to the environment.
And Bader is taking less and less batteries to Germany.
"I replaced everything in the house and apartments with rechargeable batteries. Yes, it is an investment, but it pays off over time. And that's how we preserve nature and health''.
In Croatia, they come on invitation
And the regulation in Serbia provides that used batteries and accumulators are collected from the end user in the sales facility, and then the retailer hands them over to a collector or someone else who carries out storage and treatment.
"You should know that for batteries as big polluters, the state has prescribed an environmental tax that is included in the price of new batteries, so that every time you buy new batteries, part of the price you paid for those batteries is intended for the collection, disposal and recycling of those batteries. of the same batteries when one day they become waste", warned the site, which also deals with the online sale of batteries in Serbia. Collection actions are organized in some consumer goods stores, and some local governments also do this sporadically. The widest collection network of used batteries is organized by the Delhaize company, and batteries can be handed over to more than 70 Maxi and Tempo retail stores throughout Serbia. Last year alone, they collected 1,4 tons.
In Croatia, a directive is in force that prohibits the marketing of certain batteries or accumulators with a mercury or cadmium content above the established threshold. The goal is to reduce the amount of hazardous substances that end up in nature. In Croatia, there are several options for citizens to get rid of used batteries. They can bring them themselves to recycling yards, that is, to specialized places of authorized collectors (stores, service centers, shopping centers...). Free collection is possible after calling a toll-free number, SMS, e-mail or entering an order on the websites of authorized waste collectors.
In case of leakage, protect skin and eyes
In the event of a battery leak, take precautions to prevent battery fluid from coming into contact with skin or eyes. Otherwise, you will have to ask for medical help, is a warning from one of the sites from Serbia for the online sale of batteries. Batteries, as stated, contain various chemicals, some of which can be aggressive or dangerous to health.
"Keep them away from children, which will eliminate the danger of them swallowing and poisoning. Do not put batteries in fire. Some batteries can produce toxic gases and fumes when burned. Do not charge batteries that are not intended for charging. Do not open or disassemble the batteries, some of the substances with which the batteries are filled (e.g. lithium) can be explosive when in contact with air," the warning states.
When asked what to do with used batteries, this site recommends that they not be thrown away with other garbage, because they contain heavy metals that can pollute the soil and water to a large extent, and in this way get into food and endanger health.
"Take used batteries, regardless of their type or purpose, to one of the specialized stores. Most such stores are authorized to collect used batteries and hand them over to recycling centers."
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