The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009, which came into force on 5 May 2009, place obligations on battery 'producers' - businesses that place portable, industrial and automotive batteries onto the UK market for the first time. Portable batteries are defined as both cells and those batteries that are integral to some types of electrical equipment such as cordless tools, toys, mobile phones or laptop computers. To find out if you will be obligated under the regulations please download a copy of Valpak's batteries decision tree.

You are affected by the regulations if you:

• manufacture or import batteries
• manufacture or import electrical equipment which includes batteries
• are a retailer supplying batteries to end users

Producers who place more than 1 tonne of portable batteries onto the UK market each year must:

• register with a compliance scheme who must provide consumer collection and recycling information on behalf of their
• provide quarterly sales data by weight and chemistry category
• finance the recovery of a target percentage of their battery sales

Producers who place 1 tonne or less of portable batteries onto the UK market each year must register with the relevant Environment Agency and provide an annual data submission to that Agency. Please refer to www.environment-agency.gov.uk for further information.

Retailers selling more than 32kg of portable batteries per year must provide free in-store take back of waste portable batteries.

Join our Batteries Producer Compliance Scheme today »