A total of 22,000 used car batteries are still waiting to be exported to Italy, where they will be re-charged and resold as used car batteries, after the Malta Environment and Planning Authority stopped the containers from being shipped.

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, Dr Malcolm Mifsud, on behalf of Schembri Batteries Limited in Marsa, explained that the company has three-container loads of used car batteries. He said his clients reached an agreement with a company based in Rivoli for the sale of the 22,000 used car batteries, for which it would pay Schembri Batteries Limited e57,200

On 27 July, Dr Mifsud filed a judicial protest against the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) and the Customs Comptroller on the issue.

The company complained that when it tried exporting the used car batteries, the Customs Comptroller stopped it and referred the case to MEPA. The authority did not give the company permission to export the batteries since, it maintained, that a permit was needed because the batteries fell within the parameters of waste according to EU laws.

But Dr Mifsud challenged this decision to classify the batteries as waste claiming that the authority referred to the batteries as “spent batteries” when in fact they were not spent since they were going to be recycled and re-used.

Dr Mifsud said the authorities have misinterpreted the Maltese and European laws they quoted. “They are not waste and we do not know why they are classifying them as waste. These batteries can and will be recharged. The interpretation of Maltese and European laws that are being quoted is erroneous,” he said.

The used car batteries were collected by Schembri Batteries Limited after it introduced a collection scheme years ago in which a discount on a new battery was given to customers who left their used battery at the company’s premises in Marsa.

In their judicial protest, Schembri Batteries Limited held the authorities responsible for the damage it is sustaining as a result of their refusal to grant permission to export the batteries.

Batteries contain chemicals that supply electrons (electric current) from one pole of the battery to the other. The substances differ depending upon the particular type of battery.

When the chemical substances are ‘used up’, they can no longer supply the electrons, which means no electric current. That is, the battery is “dead” or “spent”. However, supplying electric current to the battery from an outside source to regenerate the original chemicals in the battery can recharge batteries such as car batteries. Other batteries, like the ones used in the home, cannot be recharged.

Sources close to MEPA said that in order to export the used batteries, the company needs a special permit because according to the Waste Framework Directive, the contents of the containers are classified as “hazardous waste”. However, the company buying the used batteries is not willing to pay for a shipment that is being classified as waste.

It is understood that neither the Customs Comptroller nor MEPA have filed a reply to the judicial letter. Attempts to contact MEPA’s lawyer Dr Ian Stafrace proved futile.