If you are a retailer and sell portable batteries for either household or commercial use, then from 1 February 2010, you may be required, under the recent UK Batteries Regulations, to provide free take-back of portable batteries regardless of whether they were sold by you or not.
The requirement applies to each retail premises or online trader that supplies (sells or provides) more that 32kgs of separate portable batteries in a year. This does NOT include batteries included in any electrical products you may sell.
The calculator below is based on one recently published by Defra and enables you to calculate your annual total from your average weekly, monthly or annual supply of each type of battery.
| Quantity | Product | Weight/pack | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA 4pk | 0.092kg | 0.00kg | |
| AA 8pk | 0.184kg | 0.00kg | |
| AAA 4pk | 0.048kg | 0.00kg | |
| AAA 8pk | 0.096kg | 0.00kg | |
| C 1pk | 0.066kg | 0.00kg | |
| C 2pk | 0.132kg | 0.00kg | |
| C 4pk | 0.264kg | 0.00kg | |
| D 1pk | 0.148kg | 0.00kg | |
| D 2pk | 0.296kg | 0.00kg | |
| D 4pk | 0.592kg | 0.00kg | |
| 9V 1pk | 0.047kg | 0.00kg | |
| 9V 2pk | 0.094kg | 0.00kg |
If you do expect to sell more than 32 kgs in 2010, then you should take the following action:
- You must offer take-back facilities for any waste portable batteries free of charge to the public, regardless of whether they were purchased from your or whether you sell that type of battery. For shops, this will generally mean placing a batteries collection container in the shop. You are entitled to get the batteries collected from your premises free of charge by one of the registered Battery Compliance Schemes.
- You must display information for customers to show that that they can bring their batteries to your premises. Defra have produced display posters which can be downloaded here. The requirements for online sellers have not yet been resolved.
If you expect to sell less than 32 kgs in 2010, the you have no need to take any further action. You may still collect batteries, but you would not then be entitled to a free collection service from a Compliance Scheme although it is quite likely you would still get one as they are generally keen to get as many batteries as they can to meet their collection targets.
Further information, including a leaflet, is available on the Defra website.