March 2004

The Push for Battery Recycling /p>

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has launched a campaign this year
aimed at raising public awareness about the importance of recycling used batteries. Taiwan
has a low recycling rate for batteries of 17% -- the rest, amounting to about 7,400 metric tons
a year, are simply thrown away. When those batteries are burned in incinerators, dioxins and
other toxic wastes are released into the atmosphere and often return to earth as acid rain.
To improve the recycling rate, the EPA has adopted a two-pronged strategy targeted at
communities and schools throughout Taiwan. One program involves a raffle drawing.
Individuals who return ten batteries before May 31 to their local convenience store -- 7-11,
Family Mart, O-K, or others -- can receive an "environmental action card." Using the
password on this card, they may log onto the EPA web site on specific days to see if they
have won a prize. The first drawing was already held on February 5, and three others are
scheduled this year: on June 5 (Earth Day), September 28 (Teacher's Day), and December 25
(Christmas Day). The prizes include notebook computers, bicycles, and digital cameras.
The EPA has distributed 50 environmental action cards to each of several thousand
convenience stores nationwide, but if stores have run out of cards, consumers are advised to
try another convenience store or a local EPA office.
The EPA's second program focuses on students in 1,000 selected schools island-wide, from
the primary level through college. The EPA gives these schools NT$10,000 or more,
depending on the student enrollment, and stipulates that the money be used in a schoolsponsored activity -- poster campaign, game, art exhibition, sports contest, or other event -aimed at promoting battery recycling.
The raffle contest organized by the EPA resembles a program jointly sponsored last
December by the Taipei City government and Gillette (Taiwan) Inc., maker of Duracell
batteries. That event had an unfortunate outcome, though, when the city's Environmental
Protection Department (EPD) and Gillette became unwitting victims of a financial scam
organized by an unscrupulous businessman affiliated with an environmental foundation.
Under the rules of the month-long campaign, consumers who turned in ten batteries at their
local convenience stores would receive numbered coupons. The numbers could then be
entered in a lucky draw contest, with prizes awarded to the winners.
To help fund the campaign, Gillette and the EPD each contributed money and Gillette also

donated prizes. The EPD subcontracted the organization of the raffle to the now-discredited
foundation. The police have charged the man responsible for making the lucky draw, the
husband of a foundation employee, with "illegal appropriation and forged documents" and
released him on NT$50,000 bail. He is accused of falsifying the list of raffle winners with
fictitious names and then pocketing some of the prizes. With police help, the EPD has since
reconstituted the original list and distributed prizes, including a number of laptop computers,
to the rightful winners.
"Our participation in the program was driven by a desire to help the public by educating
consumers about recycling," Gillette said in a statement. "We had absolutely no involvement
in any misleading actions. We always operate under the highest ethical standards and we
would never condone any measures to mislead consumers."
Despite this unfortunate episode, Gillette has not given up on trying to heighten citizen
awareness about battery recycling. Andrew Houlberg, the company's general manager in
Taiwan, is a strong advocate of the importance of proper recycling. He explains that if
consumers are encouraged to use long-lasting alkaline batteries instead of the zinc-carbon
batteries that currently have a 65% market share, used battery disposal could be reduced to
about one-third the current volume. Manufacturers who participate in the recycling program
by paying fees of NT$20 per kilogram of used batteries may display an environmentally
friendly logo -- four green arrows -- on their packaging, though manufacturers doubt they
receive much promotional value by doing so.
The EPA aims to raise the recycling rate to 20% in 2005 and then to 30% in 2006. It
calculates that a 30% recycling rate would provide enough volume to induce companies to
invest in treatment of used batteries. The cost of setting up such a facility is estimated by
EPA to be at least US$6 million for the smallest scale operation. The materials recovered
include lead, mercury, cadmium, and nickel, which are sold to steel refiners or used in other
industrial processes.
Spent batteries are currently exported to the United States or France, where they are recycled.
"Many companies here would be interested in treating used batteries, but they will need
government encouragement and also enough volume to make it work," Houlberg says.
"Instead of exporting used batteries to be recycled, put the money into local businesses that
can do it here."
At least one overseas group is also entering the market. PEAT International of Northbrook,
Illinois, which is currently completing construction of a hazardous and medical waste
treatment facility at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, is also part of a consortium
planning a multipurpose waste management center for Taiwan. A site has not yet been
decided on for the plant, which would handle batteries in addition to other forms of waste.