A bag of batteries thrown into a residential bin exploded inside a dust truck this week – prompting warnings from the council.
Rubbish from a Cityclean dust truck had to be sprawled across Eley Drive in Rottingdean after the batteries set other refuse alight on Tuesday lunchtime.
Brighton and Hove City Council is now reminding everyone that it does not pick up batteries, and they must be taken to one of the city’s tips or a battery recycling site, which are often found at supermarkets.
Councillor Amy Heley, chair of the council’s environment, transport and sustainability committee, said: “Thankfully no one was injured, but the situation could have been far worse for the driver and crew, and potentially passers-by.
“The incident shows that batteries thrown into ordinary bins, household waste or with other recycling are extremely dangerous.
“They can easily get squashed, compacted, punctured, shredded or soaked in liquids. When this happens, they can ignite, resulting in fires that endanger lives, cause expensive damage and disrupt waste services.
“Damaged batteries are also dangerous as they contain chemicals and materials that can harm the environment if they aren’t recycled responsibly.”
The council used to collect batteries with household recycling, but this stopped several years ago
You can find your nearest recycling location at recyclenow.com by entering your postcode, town or city.
Batteries that can be recycled are:
• All household batteries including ‘button’ batteries from watches
• Battery packs from laptops, mobile phones, power tools and remote-control units
• Car batteries should be recycled at our Household Waste Recycling Sites
The council says people can also help by:
• Using rechargeable batteries where possible
• Selling or donating working, but unwanted, battery-powered electronic items instead of throwing them away. This can be done by contacting the reuse and recycle service RevaluElectricals by Tech-Takeback
• Removing a battery from a product and recycling it separately and responsibly
If a battery cannot be removed from a product, the whole item should be recycled at our Household Waste Recycling Sites, our small electricals recycling points or RevaluElectricals by Tech-Takeback
Council – why not fix the problem and start collecting batteries again? The easy you make recycling the more that will be recycled!
You used to put batteries separately and they would be collected. But no more! Why not?
I’ve looked at the website in the article. All that comes up is a list of shops that I don’t go in. None of the council sites that the article mentions are listed
The council is hopeless on recycling once again!
Please “green” council, trying being green and restarting roadside recycling for batteries. I could then recycle my batteries again!
Cost, which has gone up with the introduction of new battery technology. Transporting a large quantity of unstable lithium batteries is not a trivial matter. They’re classed as dangerous cargo for international shipping. Kerbside collection would require every vehicle be equipped for it (or else see above), training for all staff, etc.
A laptop battery holds the same potential energy as a hand grenade when fully charged, and it can release it very quickly if damaged or shorted.
I tried to recycle some small electrical items (no batteries) on Tuesday at the collection point in Ladies Mile Road, the nearest to my home, but the bin was rammed full with items also left in the chute. How often are the bins emptied?
Easy solution if we apparently have a green council, start collecting recycling properly. Should have a small box for dead AAA-D batteries. You should also be allowed to put dead charger/other thin cables or metal in the recycling too and that per ton is actually worth money if sold in bulk.
Not exactly hard rocket science to put an electro magnet in the recycling sorting depot if there isn’t one there already. Instead people just put in the bin because they can’t be bothered/forget to take back to the supermarket.
Equally how is it green to drive to the tip (located in an area with no public transport) to throw away an old I phone cable…
Never happen, greens are to obsessed with cars to care about the easy wins.
* How do you prevent battery fires in this small box? Lithium battery-rated containers are very expensive, with consumable pyropellets in them.
* Copper recycling is a theft risk.
* Most valuable metal scrap is not ferromagnetic. An electromagnet will not collect copper, brass, etc.
* The tip in Hove is directly on the 5/5A bus route.
It seems fairer to make the sellers of batteries responsible for their disposal, and in fact they are. Retailers which sell more than 32kg of batteries a year (approx. one 4 pack of AA batteries a day) are required to offer a collection service – see https://www.gov.uk/battery-waste-supplier-reponsibilities. I’ve seen these in supermarkets, pound shops etc. Why not drop the old ones off when you’re buying new ones?