Battery producers

Portable batteries

The regulations for collection, treatment and recycling depend on the amount of batteries you put on the market.

1 tonne or more per year

You must pay for the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of waste batteries. You do this by joining a Battery Compliance Scheme.

They will:

• register you with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
• collect, treat and recycle waste batteries
• send information to SEPA about the collection to recycling process

Less than 1 tonne per year

You must register directly with SEPA.

You can join a Battery Compliance Scheme to dispose of your waste batteries.

If you're starting a new battery business you must register within 28 days of putting batteries on the market.

Producers of industrial and vehicle batteries

You must register with the National Packaging Waste Database.

You have to take back any waste batteries your customers bring you, whether they bought them from you or not. Producers of vehicle batteries don't have to take batteries from consumers, just from garages, scrap yards, end of life vehicle treatment sites and civic amenity sites.

You must tell customers how they can return waste batteries, eg on your website.