**5. Conclusions**

The above quantitative and qualitative analysis of the Polish market for batteries and accumulators as well as waste batteries and accumulators shows that in the next 10 years in the country the stream of discussed waste will change dynamically. In addition to the used cells of the first type, the number of which on the market is still high, one should expect an additional significant growth in number of cells of the secondary type, especially the lithium-ion type. That is why it is so important that the current system of managing chemical energy sources undergo versification and modification taking into account the changes associated with the technology of producing new cells, which in the near future will become a valuable source of secondary raw materials. Meanwhile despite an increase in the level of metal recovery from used chemical energy sources, the amount of batteries placed on the market is growing so rapidly that the problem of recycling of secondary type cells is constantly worsening. This is influenced in particular by the development of personal device technology, which mostly uses lithium-ion cells. Despite a number of publications and reports raising the high level of risk related to pollution of the environment by poorly managed cells containing highly harmful substances, the first overriding problem limiting the effectiveness of the recovery of raw materials from lithium-ion cells is low social awareness resulting in a small stream of selectively collected waste batteries. As a result, only every tenth cell is recycled, which has a direct impact on the high technological costs associated with the recovery of metals from smaller waste material stream. The task of states and properly appointed institutions should be to take care not only of the interests of the present but also future generations, who may have major problems with maintaining stable development and rational raw material management. Greater e fforts should be made to improve public education and raise consumer awareness of the need to return raw materials for re-use, not only through regulations imposing minimum recycling rates, which usually involve higher costs, but also through improvements in the raw material situation. Also important is improvement of social awareness, especially in developed countries, where the number of devices containing cells introduced to the market is the first barrier to achieving rational levels of recovery of raw materials from electronic devices. Technologies for recovering metals from battery cells are slowly surpassing the technologies used to produce them. This is a signal that they should have a real impact on battery manufacturers to look for solutions that allow easier recovery of components and materials used in their production. There is now a clear tendency to optimize the production of cells, not only lithium-ion cells, in terms of their cost of production in relation to their e fficiency without considering recovery and reuse. As a result, the resulting batteries are not prepared for proper treatment after use, and the costs associated with the recovery of materials are increasing.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.S.-T. and W.U.; methodology, A.S.-T.; formal analysis, A.S.-T.; investigation, A.S.-T.; resources, A.S.-T.; data curation, A.S.-T. and W.U.; writing—original draft preparation, A.S.-T.; writing—review and editing, A.S.-T. and W.U.; visualization, A.S.-T.; supervision, A.S.-T.; project administration, A.S.-T.; funding acquisition, A.S.-T.

**Funding:** This study was funded by the National Science Centre of Poland (grant number 2017/01/X/ST10/00267).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
