BECOMING ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE Stage V deadline extended by Service Dealer Ireland Editor, Alan Mahon
The EU, recently, announced that they will extend the Stage V emissions regulation for non road mobile machines (NRMM) by another 12 months to December 31st 2021. This will be a great relief for manufacturers, as they were under pressure to comply with the original regulation, whose deadline was the 31st of December 2020. As most manufacturers were closed, due to Covid-19, time was against them to have engines meet this requirement by the December 2020 deadline when they went back into production.
Our industry is, and rightly so, under the microscope to produce cleaner and more environmentally friendly products, whether it is large agricultural tractors or walk behind lawn mowers. It is not only about fuel emissions but also the material used in manufacturing the equipment. The industry has been developing new solutions to limit the environmental impact of its products. Using recyclable materials such as plastic and metal is good for the environment and is also sustainable. Many of the customers who buy our garden care equipment are those that love their garden and nature. They will be making choices on what products to buy based on how environmentally friendly they are. Protecting the environment will protect our jobs and businesses. Keeping emissions and noise levels low is what manufacturers are aiming towards.
The development of battery powered vehicles has made great progress in recent years and it is definitely the way forward. Progress on large electric tractors is ongoing but it is still a long way off, I feel, before we will see them ploughing fields and pulling trailers.
What would make electric machines even more environmentally friendly is how the electricity is produced by the national grid to charge batteries in electric machines? Does it come from the burning of fossil fuels or from natural resources such as wind or solar power. We have a long way to go in Ireland before we can say for sure that our energy sources comes from renewable energy. Norway is doing very well in that regard.
The European Garden Machinery Federation (EGMF) recently submitted comments to the European Commission on its Inception Impact Assesment to modernise the EU legislation on batteries. They support the Commission’s objective to develop more sustainable batteries in Europe. Some of the key points the EGMF raised for consideration in the future legislation were:
Maintaining the existing battery categories (portable, industrial, automotive) but further clarification on the scope is necessary, particularly between portable and industrial batteries
Collection targets should be calculated based on the amount of batteries available for recycling instead of the amount of batteries placed on the market
Measures on substances used in batteries should avoid overlaps with existing chemicals legislation
Communicating information to waste recyclers on battery chemistry
Differentiating between non-reusable portable batteries e.g. D (Mono), C (Baby), AAAA, AAA (Mikro), AA (Mignon), etc
Supporting the reparability of garden and outdoor power equipment, including the replacement of batteries. However, attention should be drawn to the important safety risks associated with disassembly/reassembly of batteries linked to fires and overheating
Secondary raw materials used for recycled content in batteries should be suitable and do not pose any technical and safety risks for the end-users
Some of the requirements for improving the sustainability for batteries such as interoperability could stifle innovation. Competition should remain the main driver of technological progress