Mercury Free

無水銀

Innovation Without Impact

Today, the demand for environmentally friendly technology is greater than ever. The need to cut carbon emissions and protect the planet is strong and manufacturers must take the lead.

With respect to this, Rayovac have invested millions and dedicated many years to researching and developing our mercury free batteries to produce a more environmentally friendly battery with the power and performance today’s hearing aid devices require. Our latest mercury free hearing aid batteries have longer last performance with increased consistency and reliability providing you with a better all round experience.

Legislation

Mercury was banned from alkaline batteries in 1996. However certain other button cell batteries, such as hearing aid and watch batteries were exempted from this ban since an alternative to mercury was not readily available. The majority of hearing aid batteries contain a tiny amount of mercury to keep the battery stable.

In October 2014, the European Commission announced, following an in-depth feasibility study, that all button cell batteries must be free of mercury by 2nd October 2015, in an amendment to the 2006/66/EC Battery Directive. This is a European wide ban on the sale of mercury containing button cells after this date.

Awards

Our success in developing mercury free batteries has resulted in a number of major awards. In the UK, we were awarded the prestigious Queens Award for Enterprise for Innovation 2011. While in the US the mercury free range received two honours in the International Business Awards (or Stevies). By removing mercury from all hearing aid batteries would mean 6,500 kg less mercury would be released into the environment every year. That’s the equivalent of 15,000 footballs – so the benefits are significant in terms of reducing the amount of mercury that could be potentially exposed to the environment as used batteries decay, often in landfill sites.

Rayovac is a member of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Mercury Partnership. This voluntary body has been set up with the intention of reducing the use of mercury and other heavy metals in everyday goods.