A great effort to recycle batteries has been performed in the last two decades. During this period new directives have been published specially in Europe. The aim of this paper is to review the current status of technologies applied to recycle portable batteries, e.g. lead acid will not be described here. Essentially, this paper presents the current status of the technologies involved in the collection, sorting and processing of portable batteries. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.