Welcome to Amsterdam!

The International Congresses for Battery Recycling are worldwide recognized as the top conferences in battery recycling technologies and marketing. These fortunate series, initially mainly addressed to a European audience, are now events that cannot be missed by anyone interested in this important, constantly growing and demanding field.  ICBRs provide an unique forum where scientists, engineers, producers and recyclers can meet to share their views and discuss their business.

This year’s edition will open with a session where a key point in recycling, namely the impact of the legislation  on battery collection and recycling industry,  will be presented  by  experts who will focus their presentations  on the EU resource efficiency  policy, the unification of the registration system for the European battery producers and the related  financial aspects.

We will then move to the second session, where the challenges of implementing the collection schemes, an efficient recovery of spent batteries from WEEE, safety issues at the end of life of reactive batteries and the transport regulation and the new challenges for battery manufacturers and recycling industries, will be discussed among the audience.

Accordingly, in the morning session of the second day we will touch the market aspects by examining the evolution of the consumer electronic and of the primary battery market and, I believe for the first time, the challenges posed by the diversification of the lithium battery technologies and their impact on electro mobility due to the expected large diffusion in the road of hybrid and electric vehicles.

The afternoon session will be addressed to the presentation of the worldwide growing number of recycling plants and processes. Whether this intense activity has met the for long time pursued goal of an effective achievement of a  high recycling efficiency, will be evaluated  and discussed at the  Round Table  scheduled for the end of the day.

To put it simple - a very interesting and perhaps ambitious program. To make it a real and profitable experience for the participants, we have carefully selected the speakers among the top worldwide experts. Another qualifying aspect of the ICBRs is the choice of the location. Last year’s edition took place in Venice with much appreciation of the delegates. This year we move to Amsterdam, another sophisticated and very pleasant city. In addition, the well-known, traditional high class of the ICBR series will be guaranteed, if not even surpassed, in this edition by the high standard of the social activities that include a super Network Dinner event, where the participants will enjoy excellent food and have a pleasant, relaxing site for establishing their business contacts. We are sure that you will not be disappointed by this conference and we expect that you will come to Amsterdam in order to break again the conference participation record!

Welcome to ICBR 2012, welcome to Amsterdam.

Professor Bruno Scrosati
Chairman of the Steering Committee
International Congress for Battery Recycling