{"id":1096,"date":"2023-10-16T06:26:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T06:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/?p=1096"},"modified":"2025-03-04T02:03:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T02:03:23","slug":"new-eu-law-to-force-smartphone-makers-to-build-easily-replaceable-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096","title":{"rendered":"New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Smartphone manufacturers make their batteries hard to replace<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0. Tough new EU rules will change that.\u00a0
The European Union will soon require\u00a0smartphone\u00a0<\/strong>manufacturers to let users replace their batteries.
The tough new rules – endorsed by the European Parliament this week – could save millions of phones from landfill.
Every year, more than 150 million smartphones are thrown away. Making batteries more easily to replace could stem this deluge of e-waste.
Existing phones seal away batteries within the tablet, meaning replacing them can be nearly as expensive as buying a new\u00a0phone.<\/strong>
The new measures will help break that cycle of rampant consumption, MEP Achille Variati declared.
\u201cFor the first time, we have circular economy legislation that covers the entire life cycle of a product – an approach that is good for both the environment and the economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201cWe agreed on measures that greatly benefit consumers: batteries will be well-functioning, safer and easier to remove.\u201d
What are the EU’s new rules?<\/strong>Under the legislation, consumers must be able to “easily remove and replace”\u00a0portable batteries<\/strong>\u00a0used in devices such as\u00a0smartphones,<\/strong>\u00a0tablets, and cameras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will necessitate a significant redesign.
The smartphone replacement rules are part of a broader system of rules.
All electric vehicle and\u00a0rechargeable industrial batteries<\/strong>\u00a0above 2kWh will need to have a compulsory carbon footprint declaration, label, and digital passport.
The parliament also passed new targets for collecting waste and recovering materials from old batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


By 2031, 61 per cent of waste must be collected and 95 per cent of materials must be recovered from\u00a0old portable batteries.
What is planned obsolescence and why is it a problem?<\/strong>Mobile phones sit in landfill, leaching toxic chemicals into groundwater and contaminating soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


These take years to decompose. Worse still, these dead\u00a0phones\u00a0<\/strong>are a terrible waste of precious metals like cobalt and lithium.
Such metals have to be mined – often with hugely destructive consequences for local communities and ecosystems. As the renewable transition increases demand for batteries, reducing unnecessary pressure on existing stocks is a moral and economic imperative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Unfortunately, many phones are built to stop working.
Ever felt your phone getting slower or rifled through a stash of old, unusable apple chargers for the right dongle? Then you’ve experienced the blood-boiling frustrations of planned obsolescence.
Manufacturers seriously limit the lifespan of their own devices in order to force consumers to buy newer models.
Public opinion is against this practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


According to a European Commission study conducted last year, 77 per cent of EU citizens would rather repair their devices than replace them. In addition, 79 per cent think that manufacturers should make their digital devices easier to repair, with\u00a0smartphone<\/a><\/strong>better access to individual parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smartphone manufacturers make their batteries hard to replace\u00a0. Tough new EU rules will change that.\u00a0The European Union will soon require\u00a0smartphone\u00a0manufacturers to let users replace their batteries.The tough new rules – endorsed by the European Parliament this week – could save millions of phones from landfill.Every year, more than 150 million smartphones are thrown away. Making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smartphone"],"yoast_head":"\nNew EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries - Batteries Fast Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries - Batteries Fast Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Smartphone manufacturers make their batteries hard to replace\u00a0. Tough new EU rules will change that.\u00a0The European Union will soon require\u00a0smartphone\u00a0manufacturers to let users replace their batteries.The tough new rules – endorsed by the European Parliament this week – could save millions of phones from landfill.Every year, more than 150 million smartphones are thrown away. Making […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Batteries Fast Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-16T06:26:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-04T02:03:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bella\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"bella\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096\",\"name\":\"New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries - Batteries Fast Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-16T06:26:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-04T02:03:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/77c84eb3fb06925fe618ddb29d55932b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/\",\"name\":\"Batteries Fast Blog\",\"description\":\"Replacement Battery & Adapter Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/77c84eb3fb06925fe618ddb29d55932b\",\"name\":\"bella\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bebf3096a51ce7e2123b6e0fc60d24a5e67ee865894d2a376f0cd59eb487b2fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bebf3096a51ce7e2123b6e0fc60d24a5e67ee865894d2a376f0cd59eb487b2fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"bella\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/author\/bella\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries - Batteries Fast Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries - Batteries Fast Blog","og_description":"Smartphone manufacturers make their batteries hard to replace\u00a0. Tough new EU rules will change that.\u00a0The European Union will soon require\u00a0smartphone\u00a0manufacturers to let users replace their batteries.The tough new rules – endorsed by the European Parliament this week – could save millions of phones from landfill.Every year, more than 150 million smartphones are thrown away. Making […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096","og_site_name":"Batteries Fast Blog","article_published_time":"2023-10-16T06:26:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-04T02:03:23+00:00","author":"bella","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"bella","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096","url":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096","name":"New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries - Batteries Fast Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-10-16T06:26:26+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-04T02:03:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/77c84eb3fb06925fe618ddb29d55932b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/1096#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New EU law to force smartphone makers to build easily replaceable batteries"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/","name":"Batteries Fast Blog","description":"Replacement Battery & Adapter Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/77c84eb3fb06925fe618ddb29d55932b","name":"bella","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bebf3096a51ce7e2123b6e0fc60d24a5e67ee865894d2a376f0cd59eb487b2fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bebf3096a51ce7e2123b6e0fc60d24a5e67ee865894d2a376f0cd59eb487b2fa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"bella"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs"],"url":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/archives\/author\/bella"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batteriesfast.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}