Battery collection

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• C
• AA
• AAA
• 9V
• Button
• Rechargeable

• Lead acid batteries, e.g. car batteries
• Portable appliance battery units, e.g. handheld vacuums, power tools
• Golf trolley/power caddy
• E-Scooter battery
• Mobility scooter battery
• Batteries with trailing wires
• Children's ride on toy batteries
• Motorbike batteries        
• Sealed lactic acid/gel batteries
• 12v leisure batteries
• Items with integral batteries i.e. electric toothbrush, mobile phone etc
• Laptops

Batteries need to be presented in a sealed clear sandwich or freezer bag and placed on top of your blue-lidded recycling bin or beside your blue recycling sack on the day that your recycling is collected. Residents should store used batteries at home until they have enough to fill a sandwich bag to avoid the bag blowing off the bin in the wind, and potentially being missed by the crew. 

Residents should never put their used batteries in their household waste, blue-lidded recycling, or garden waste bins.

Some batteries are classed as hazardous waste and are a major fire risk. Household waste is compacted in the back of refuse collection vehicles and is then mechanically processed at the Council's waste treatment facilities. Each of these processes increase the risk of fire or explosion, which threatens the safety of staff and could cause substantial damage resulting in significant service disruption and a large cost for the taxpayer. 

In the 2019/20 financial year, batteries caused nearly 260 fires at waste and recycling facilities to find out more go to https://www.takecharge.org.uk/ (opens new window).

Some batteries are classed as hazardous waste and are a major fire risk. Mixed recycling is compacted in the back of refuse collection vehicles and is then sorted using an automated process including lots of conveyor belts and specialised equipment to extract the recyclables. Each of these processes increase the risk of fire or explosion, which threatens the safety of staff and could cause substantial damage resulting in significant service disruption and a large cost for the taxpayer. 

It is important that batteries are placed in sealed sandwich bags, on top on your blue-lidded bin or beside your blue recycling sack so that the collection crew can see them, and never in the bin or sack. 

In the 2019/20 financial year, batteries caused nearly 260 fires at waste and recycling facilities to find out more see https://www.takecharge.org.uk/ (opens new window).

No, crews are not equipped to handle leaking batteries as these could pose a fire risk to staff and vehicles during transport. Please place leaking batteries in a sealed plastic bag and take to your nearest household recycling centre (HRC). The staff at these sites are fully equipped to ensure the batteries can be safely packaged for onward transport to a specialist battery recycling facility.

This is not the case for the batteries which are accepted on this service, but we do ask residents to present batteries in clear, sealed bags so that they can be easily identified by the crew and will not fall out and cause waste spillage or create litter.

No, residents are advised to store used batteries at home in a plastic tub or glass jar until they have enough to fill a sandwich bag to present for collection. The plastic containers for public use in supermarkets allow retailers to receive a much larger quantity of batteries than an individual household would be expected to accumulate. 

Small quantities of batteries can be recycled at your local household recycling centre (HRC) and at many local retailers, locations of which can be found on https://www.recyclenow.com/recycling-locator (opens new window).

Residents are asked to take caution when presenting batteries on hot summer days.

Remember batteries are also accepted for recycling at all our Household recycling centres (HRCs) and at many local retailers, locations of which can be found on https://www.recyclenow.com/recycling-locator (opens new window).

Where batteries need to be presented during this time, residents may wish to present them later in the day, closer to their usual time of collection. However, the Council cannot guarantee collections will always be at the same time of day.

The council now collects small rechargeable electricals, separately from batteries. Find out more on our electricals page. 

Crews have been trained to collect the batteries separately. If you see crews mix batteries into the blue-lidded bin or sack, please report this (opens new window) to the Council so we can investigate and, if necessary, re-train the crew.

All batteries presented should be removed by the crew unless incorrect batteries are presented or if batteries have leaked. If this is the case, a sticker will be placed on the battery bag, advising residents. 

Batteries can be recycled at your local household recycling centre (HRC) and at many local retailers, locations of which can be found on https://www.recyclenow.com/recycling-locator (opens new window).

The batteries will be placed by hand into a separate compartment on the vehicle (for some vehicles this may be in the vehicle cab). When the vehicle arrives at the tip location, the batteries will be offloaded by hand into pallet sized stillage boxes, to avoid risk of damage by machinery and give staff a chance to check for any non-conforming items.

The crew's existing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) includes gloves, which will protect them from potential hazards.

Batteries will be transferred to a pallet sized stillage box at the locations where recycling is tipped. When the box is full, Hills' electrical recycling partner will collect the box and deliver the batteries to a specialist recycling facility, where they will be safely dismantled into their core components, which will be sold to manufacturers for use in new products. 

The plastic bags will be separated during the battery recycling process and sent for disposal.

The primary benefit to the Council is the reduced risk of fires, both on collection vehicles and at waste treatment and recycling facilities. 

Whilst the weight of batteries collected is likely to have negligible impact on the Council's recycling rate, battery recycling allows the components to be used again in new products, so contributes to environmental objectives through preventing extraction of new resources.  

Battery recycling is funded by battery producers under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013; therefore, there is no cost to the Council to recycle the batteries, other than the costs of collection from residents. 

The simplest way to reduce battery usage is to switch to rechargeable batteries.