A Comparative Study of End-of-Life Portable Batteries Management Between Korea, Japan, and Germany = A Comparative Study of End-of-Life Portable Batteries Management Between Korea, Japan, and Germany

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Batteries are classified as primary batteries that can not be charged, and secondary batteries that can be recharged for extended life. The primary batteries include alkalis-manganese battery, mercury battery, lithium battery, and others, while the secondary batteries cover nickel cadmium(Ni-Cd) battery, Nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) battery, lithium ion battery, lithium polymer battery, lead storage battery, and others. Because waste batteries may contain hazardous materials, improper disposal of such waste may result in adverse impacts on the environment and human health. Therefore, the disposal and recycling of waste batteries is becoming an important issue in waste management policy. This study conducted a comparative study of end-of-life portable batteries management between Korea, Japan, and Germany. The data required for this study were collected from the literature review, available statistics developed by the governments, discussion with the experts, survey and field visits to the local government office, and battery recycling facilities. In Korea, waste batteries have been included in EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) policy since 2003 for effective recovery and recycling of the waste from consumers. In Japan, the primary battery is usually collected by local municipality, while the secondary battery is managed by the JBRC(Japanese Battery Recycling Cooperation). Germany has started the EPR system with four collection organizations of waste batteries such as GRS, REBAT, and ERP. The role of the organizations varies with different provinces, concentrating on collection, sorting, and recycling of waste batteries. Also, they carry out take-back system (Reverse Logistics), allowing distributors to collect back waste batteries from consumers for free. According to the results of the study, Japan's POM (Placed On Market) is the highest at 87,806 tons in 2015, followed by Germany (43,979 tons) and Korea (14,634 tons). Among them, Japan recycled 22,855 tons, Germany 19,142 tons and Korea only 2,906 tons. Germany (44.2%) have the highest collection rates followed by Japan (26.03%) and Korea (19.86%). There is a need for better effective collection efforts on waste batteries in Korea by adopting various collection programs including take-back by retailers, collection from industrial sectors, and economic incentives to consumers for more collection.