Brussels - New European Union rules on battery recycling and disposal came into force across the 27-member bloc on Friday in what officials described as an "important step" in the fight to protect the environment and human health.

The new system "represents another important step towards our goal of making Europe into a recycling society," as well as helping protect health, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.

Under the new rules, any batteries which contain more than a 0.0005-per-cent trace of mercury, and portable batteries such as the popular AA and AAA formats which contain more than 0.002 per cent of cadmium, are banned from the EU market.

Both mercury and cadmium are toxic substances whose effects range from brain damage to cancer. Current nickel-cadmium (NiCd) batteries can hold up to 13 per cent cadmium, EU studies say.

Member states will also have to make sure that at least 25 per cent of portable batteries used are collected and recycled by September 26, 2012, and boost that figure to
45 per cent by 2016.

They have to do so by setting up local collection schemes and making sure that producers and sellers take back used batteries at no extra charge, whether the batteries in question are tiny AAA models or car batteries.

According to figures from the EU's executive, in 2002 EU citizens dumped 45.5 per cent of all the portable batteries bought that year - 72,155 tons of waste - in untreated landfills.

Commission sources say there is no clear information on what became of the other 54.5 per cent, but that EU citizens keep some 37 per cent of their used batteries for many years - and then dump them.

Moreover, many of the batteries collected in EU member states simply ended up on dumps at a later stage, officials say.

Under the new laws, member states will have to make sure that collection and recycling schemes are up and running and that all the batteries they collect are recycled by September 26, 2009.

They will also have to make sure that their populations are made more aware of the possibilities to recycle batteries, with both the collection and public-awareness schemes funded by battery producers.

As well as car, AA and AAA batteries, the scheme covers power packs for appliances such as mobile phones, laptops, electric toothbrushes, deep sea divers' lamps, TV and video cameras, credit- card payment machines and bar-code readers.

It does not, however, cover batteries for use in the armed forces, security services and space exploration.

Of the EU's 27 member states, Estonia, Latvia, Spain, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria and Slovenia have already brought in the law. (dpa)