Stibat stands for Batteries Foundation. This is the organisation that coordinates the collection activities for empty batteries in the Netherlands. They develop activities in various areas to inform everyone about the how and why of the collection of used batteries. And this is done on a non-profit basis. Since 1995 there has been a legal regulation stating that used batteries must be collected and recycled by or on behalf of producers and importers of batteries. Stibat has taken over this task. A so-called disposal fee must be paid per battery. Elfa is a member of Stibat and charges you the relevant disposal contribution for each battery.

Stibat arranges the collection of batteries. Empty batteries do not belong in the bin. It may contain substances that are harmful to the environment, such as the heavy metals mercury, lead and cadmium. They harm the environment when disposed in the household waste. That’s why it is a good thing that more people return empty batteries. Separate from other waste. Not only the well-known penlite batteries can be returned, but also coin cells and the batteries in, for example, mobile telephones, photo and film cameras and cordless tools. Rechargeable batteries may last longer than single-use batteries, but at some point they also cease to function properly and must be disposed of responsibly. Handing in empty batteries separately not only saves the environment, but the metals of the battery are recycled for reuse (think nickel, steel and zinc). New products are made from this, such as zinc gutters, crash barriers, but also new batteries. From 25 million kilos of recycled batteries, 13 million kilos of usable metals were recovered over a period of 12 years! That is a significant saving on our mineral resources.

Click here for more information.

NEN stands for National Standardisation Institute. Those who participate in standardization share their knowledge in order to benefit from it together with others. Standardisation strives for efficient, safe, healthy and sustainable products and processes. Several interests are united in a smart way. NEN is the national standardization institute in the Netherlands. They work on economic growth and well-being in a European (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) and worldwide (ISO, IEC and ITU) context. As the Dutch centre of standardization, NEN helps companies and other organisations to make clear and applicable agreements with each other.

Click here for the website of NEN.

RoHS stands for Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances. In February 2003, the European RoHS directive came into existence. It concerns the use of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PBDE. Lead-free soldering is an important part of this guideline. For the complete EU guideline, please click here.

Elfa has been around for over 100 years. Click herefor more information on Elfa’s history.

Formats are given a name and can also have a code. The names are more or less the same in all countries, although other terms are often used in common parlance. The codes are different everywhere, e.g. the international IEC code and the American code. Also each brand often uses its own codes. It is therefore often difficult to recognize the codes on packaging. The IEC code is the most common. The battery types are identified by the letters in the IEC code. Alkaline, for example, is called LR.

* there can sometimes be some tolerance differences in this.