Check your WEEE, Battery and Packaging Obligations

If you manufacture, import, or rebrand electrical products and place them on the UK market for the first time, you are classed as a producer and the WEEE rules apply to you. This includes overseas businesses selling directly to UK customers, for example online. Since August 2025, online marketplaces are also producers for equipment sold to UK households by overseas sellers.

If you only resell equipment that has already been supplied in the UK, you are a distributor rather than a producer, though you may still have take-back duties to meet.

Five tonnes is the point at which your obligations change. If you place 5 tonnes or more of electrical equipment on the UK market in a year, you must join an approved Producer Compliance Scheme. Under 5 tonnes, you can register directly with your environmental regulator instead (the Environment Agency in England, SEPA in Scotland, Natural Resources Wales or NIEA in Northern Ireland).

Either way, you report the weight you place on the market across the 15 WEEE categories, split between household and non-household equipment. We can help you work out which side of the line you sit on.

Often, yes. Battery and packaging obligations are assessed separately from WEEE, so it is common to have duties under more than one set of rules.

If you place more than 1 tonne of portable batteries on the market each year, you must join a batteries compliance scheme. At 1 tonne or less, you register directly with your environmental regulator. Industrial and automotive batteries have no tonnage threshold: you register with the Office for Product Safety and Standards and take back waste batteries free of charge. Packaging is judged on your turnover and packaging weight together, and transit packaging counts towards the total.

You will get a clear breakdown of what applies to you, what it requires, and where your thresholds sit. It is general guidance rather than legal advice, because your obligations are assessed on your own figures and on how your products are classified.

If you would like your position confirmed, we begin with a comprehensive desktop audit, followed by a straightforward quotation tailored to your needs.

We are an approved Producer Compliance Scheme, approval number WEE/KP3638PZ/SCH, with over 21 years of experience supporting UK producers.

Unlike most schemes, we handle treatment in house through our own approved facility, which means fewer parties involved and a clear, auditable route for your equipment. You also get personalised support from a team who guide you through reporting, documentation, and any changes in legislation that affect your business.