About Our Batteries Compliance Services

Recycling Lives Compliance Services are unique. As well as assuring you of meeting all batteries regulations and requirements, either as a battery producer or distributor, we assure you of tangible social value through contracts with the Recycling Lives Group.

  • Evidencing the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of batteries
  • Assuming legal responsibility for complying with battery regulations
  • Working with large and small producers, and distributors

With extensive industry knowledge and a clear understanding of Waste Batteries and Accumulator Regulations, our battery compliance consultants are well placed to advise you on your business’ responsibilities and requirements. We will assume legal responsibility for your organisation to comply with the battery directive and deliver solutions whether you are a producer or distributor, large or small.

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Batteries Compliance

The regulations and your responsibilities

The battery directive - the Waste Battery and Accumulator Regulations 2009 - was brought in to improve the environmental performance of batteries and accumulators. It sets out requirements for waste battery collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of all battery types, affecting battery producers, distributors, recyclers, exporters and waste battery collectors.

It is a criminal offence to not comply with the Regulations, but adherence to the directive is simplified by Recycling Lives Battery Compliance Scheme. We will assume all responsibility for your obligations by arranging the collection, treatment and recycling of waste batteries for you, and will also register you with the relevant Environment Agency. We work with any UK business placing batteries on the market, providing cost-effective, compliant solutions with a unique addition of creating social impact from all our operations.

who we work with

  • tomee tippee ®
  • RIVER ISLAND
  • Superdrug
  • makita ®
  • claire's

Benefits designed to help your business

  • Dedicated account manager
  • Unique partnership between a battery compliance scheme and an industry-leading recycler
  • Evidence on the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of batteries
  • Assuming legal responsibility for complying with battery compliance regulations
  • Transparent approach to funding and securing collection and treatment partners
  • Dedicated account managers; experts in the battery directive
  • Opportunities to report direct CSR from processing and recycling through Recycling Lives offender rehabilitation and job creation programmes

WEEE Solutions that have a social Impact

Recycling Lives create employment opportunities for prisoners and ex-offenders to aid rehabilitation and reduce reoffending. We have been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development for providing training and employment at recycling centres, which operate within HMP facilities.

The Recycling Lives business sustains charity through commercial metal and waste recycling services. In addition to our social welfare charity, which assists people struggling with homelessness, our HMP recycling facilities provide work experience, training and skills which prepare prisoners for life after prison.

Our Facilities

We operate electrical equipment recycling facilities at satellite installations within HM prison services, including FPD (Flat Panel Display) and other IT equipment dismantling. Full training is provided, to ensure that the programme is appropriate for all abilities. Prisoners are paid for the work, 40% of which goes towards victims support funds.

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Batteries Compliance
Creating Opportunities

Rehabilitation and reoffending are commonly identified as key issues facing our overcrowded prison systems. By equipping prisoners with skills, self-confidence, work experience and qualifications, we can help people to escape a recurrent cycle of repeat offending and become active members of society.

The Prison Reform Trust states ‘Prisoners who attend vocational training in prison are more likely to secure employment shortly after release – a view endorsed by Ofsted’.

In addition, a similar scheme to the Recycling Lives programme operated by the National Grid found reoffending rates for participants were just 6%, compared to the 45% average.

Accreditations

  • Environment Agency
  • ICER
  • SEPA Scottish Environment Protection Agency
  • Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru Natural Resources Wales ®
  • NIEA Northern Ireland Environment Agnecy
  • BMRA

Batteries Compliance explained

Your business is a battery producer if it:

  • Places batteries onto the UK market either as a UK based manufacturer or through importing goods from abroad. This includes batteries contained in electrical products such a laptops and mobile phones
  • Has a physical presence within the UK, such as a UK office, trading arm or Post Office box.

Companies that buy batteries from a UK supplier or import batteries for use within the company are not considered battery producers.

A company that produces more than one tonne of portable batteries, as below, is considered a large producer while a company that produces less than one tonne of portable batteries is considered a small producer. A large producer is obligated to join a battery compliance scheme and take responsibility for, and fund the collection, treatment and recycling of, waste batteries. Small producers are not obligated to fund the collection and treatment of waste batteries, but they must register with the Environment Agency, pay their annual registration fee, and submit the tonnage of portable batteries placed on the market each year.

Producers of automotive and industrial batteries must register with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to - like small producers - submit the tonnage of batteries they place on the market each year.

Battery distributors

Not all battery distributors are obligated under the battery directive. Your business is an obligated battery distributor if it:

  • Supplies batteries or products that contain batteries to an end user - this includes batteries sourced within the UK
  • Sells more than 32kg a year of portable batteries to end users.

If your company distributes batteries that are sold within products, such as laptops, you are not obligated under the battery directive unless you also sell more that 32kg of portable batteries separately. An obligated battery distributor must accept waste portable batteries from end users without charge.

Batteries Compliance FAQs

Find the answers to all your questions about Batteries Compliance.

Q: What are the battery
disposal regulations?
A:

The battery disposal regulations outline a set of requirements from battery producers:

  • All battery producers are responsible for the collection, treatment, recycling and disposal of portable batteries.
  • Appropriate labelling must be used for batteries containing certain amount of mercury of cadmium
  • All batteries must be labelled with the crossed out wheeled bin
  • Restrictions must be adhered to on use of mercury and cadmium in new batteries
  • Design standards must be adhered to for new appliances that contain batteries.

And if you want the legal answer… The Waste Battery and Accumulator Regulations came into force in May 2009. They implement the provisions made for waste batteries in the EU Directive 2006/66/EC and supplement the Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008

Q: What do I have to do as a
batteries producer or distributor?
A:

If you are a batteries producer you must:

  • Register with a Battery Compliance Scheme (BCS) or the Environment Agency
  • Declare the tonnage of batteries placed on the market by type on a quarterly or annual basis, as required
  • Fund the collection, recycling and treatment of the batteries, as relevant, depending on the type of batteries you are placing on the market.

If you are a distributor of portable batteries, you must:

  • Offer an in-store collection service for portable batteries, and publicise this take back offering.

Battery recycling regulations also dictate that shops which sell more than 32 kilograms of batteries a year are required to provide in-store recycling collection facilities for portable batteries.

Q: What type of batteries
do I produce?
A:

The battery regulations cover different kinds of batteries, so it’s important to know which you produce:

  • Portable batteries - sealed batteries weighing less that 4kg and not designed for a specific industrial or professional use
  • Automotive batteries - batteries intended for use in an automated vehicle, during ignition, start or lighting
  • Industrial batteries - batteries either sealed or unsealed, designed with a specific industrial or professional use in mind, or any portable battery weighing more than 4kg.
Q: What are battery
compliance schemes?
A:

All battery producers must register on the battery compliance register through a Battery Compliance Scheme. Recycling Lives Battery Compliance Scheme assumes all responsibility for all your producer obligations by arranging the collection, treatment and recycling of waste batteries for you. We will also register you with the relevant Environment Agency.

Q: I have waste batteries but
I am not a battery producer, what should I do?
A:

If you generate waste batteries, but you are not a battery producer or a distributor, then you have two options:

  • Request a free battery bin for your business
  • Take them to your local recycling centre - but always ensure it is capable of recycling batteries.
Q: What happens if I don’t comply
with the battery directive?
A:

It is a criminal offence to not fulfil your obligations under the Battery and Accumulator Regulations.
Failure to register with the Environment Agency or a battery compliance scheme could result in court proceedings and significant fines.

Recycling Lives Battery Compliance Scheme will assume all responsibility for all your producer obligations for you.

why work with us

Martin Chown Supply Chain Director Sellafield Limited We are committed to ensuring our local communities derive maximum economic benefit from the money we spend at Sellafield, by insisting companies that win work with us to invest to support local growth. Recycling Lives has these values at its core and I’m excited by their plans. The contract win also allowed for the creation of a number of jobs in Cumbria as we work to open a new site in the county, creating jobs for yard operatives, drivers and site managers. Read moreRead less
Josh Steiner Social Value & Sustainability Manager Wates Group Recycling Lives has reaped the rewards of strong commercial and social credentials to secure large-scale contracts. The high value and quality nature of the service, alongside its demonstrable social benefits has prompted the organisation’s ongoing success, allowing it to expand its range of services and open in new locations to achieve nationwide coverage Read moreRead less
Jeremy Hartley Managing Director Eric Wright Group The Eric Wright Group has always recognised the importance of supporting the local community and using our business activities to improve people’s lives. Working with Recycling Lives gives us an opportunity to continue to make a real difference and achieve more through working together. Read moreRead less
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