Household battery recycling

[werdnal]

Since reading a while back that the most polluting thing put in landfills is household batteries, I have made the effort to save them in the hope of finding a suitable recycling option. Now I have a fairly large bagful, I've just phoned our local council to be told there is only one battery recycler in the county, and would involve a 35 mile round trip for me to deliver them!

I was wondering if anyone knew of a company who offers this service and might be able to provide return envelopes, or even a collection facility through schools etc. I have done a Google but not been very successful finding anthing yet.

What do you do with batteries? And yes before anyone shouts at me, I know there are rechargeables available - we have charger and use them in some things, but never find they last very long, and some items specifically suggest they are not suitable.

[Mr Mag00]

i have the same problem i have quite a collection in my garage and would probably be deemed hazardous waste judging by the size.
i too have to travel to recycle them, but i try and incorporate it with something else so not a single trip.

[Billy Wobble Dagger]

We can and do put ours in the recycling box. I'm not sure of what happens to them after that.

BWD

[helen253]

not sure if this is of any use to anyone but ikea have a recycling point for batteries as well as lightbulbs and carrier bags inside their stores....

[clover green]

Thanks for the tip Helen253, most helpful.

[helen253]

my pleasure clover.x

[ron1863]

I found this site, which may be of help

battery recycling

[pressld2]

Although I work for HP my office is in a BT telephone exchange and there is a battery recycling bin there that I use. I would imagine most large companies concerned about their green credentials would do something similar. I wonder if Tescos, Sainsburys, M&S, etc. could be persuaded to follow IKEA's lead and offer this facility, at least at their larger stores?

They've all got websites so let's all email them to suggest it.

Dave P.

[werdnal]

I've looked into this further since my original post, and apparently Sainsburys do freepost envelopes in which you can send batteries for recycling. Trouble is I spent nearly an hour surfing to find reference to it. Why don't they publicise it more? I would have thought it is relatively easy to put "battery bins" in schools etc, which would make children more aware of not throwing them in the dustbin.

I was appalled when I rang my local council refuse department asking for advice about recycling batteries to be told I can take them to the local "Amenity Centre" (their posh new name for the tip). When I asked what they do with them, she said "They have a specific skip for batteries" Oh great thought, then I went on to ask where they eventually go - "Oh to the local landfill!" £%$"%$"%" !!!!

I think I read somewhere in my internet search that there are new directives coming in next year to force Local Authorities to do more where batteries are concerned, but I'm just surprised which so much controversy about plastic carriers, more isn't being done already about such a potentially toxic waste!

[Garden Carpet]

Last time I was in PC World also collected batteries to re-cycle.
jaki

[Countrymum]

Thumbs up to our local council (Melton Mowbray). From the New Year, they will collect them as part of our weekly recycling collection.

[nightshade]

Originally Posted by werdnal

Since reading a while back that the most polluting thing put in landfills is household batteries, I have made the effort to save them in the hope of finding a suitable recycling option. Now I have a fairly large bagful, I've just phoned our local council to be told there is only one battery recycler in the county, and would involve a 35 mile round trip for me to deliver them!

I was wondering if anyone knew of a company who offers this service and might be able to provide return envelopes, or even a collection facility through schools etc. I have done a Google but not been very successful finding anthing yet.

What do you do with batteries? And yes before anyone shouts at me, I know there are rechargeables available - we have charger and use them in some things, but never find they last very long, and some items specifically suggest they are not suitable.

Try your Parish council and insist there is a need, use local organisations like
Young Farmers, W.I. etc. someone will volunteer to help amongst your neighbours even taking it in turns.Where there is a will..........

[Gav]

I've been a lurker on this site so this is my first post & I know this is a bit late, I have accumulated a big collection of used batteries and was actually just searching the web and thought the great people on here would probably have discussed battery recycling/disposal before

after suggestions on here I did a few searches and found this great page:

the freepost battery address:
Freepost details for recycling batteries, plastics, smoke alarms light bulbs and 1000's of other items

more info on green batteries:
Green Battery - Rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride & Lithium Batteries.

regards
Gavin

[werdnal]

Thanks for the address link. However, if you read the previous page on that site, it is more of a protest site to get producers to recycle batteries, not necessarily a route for enable your returned batteries to be recycled. By all means write to these companies to insight a campaign to get something more permanent done for recycling facilities for batteries, but my fear is that by sending batteries to some of the listed addresses, they are likely to just be thrown out in normal refuse to landfill.

I would rather get hold of a properly set-up recycling organisation for peace of mind that my returned batteries are going to the right place.

[witham]

We have a very good recycling centre about 5 miles from where I live which takes old batteries including car etc, plastic bags, other plastic, and old oil, as well as the usual glass, greenwaste, landfill, metal, electrical etc etc. we use it quite often. We have book, cardboard, old clothing and bottle banks in the nearby village but these are often overflowing and some people leave glass at the side so it can easily be broken etc or animals could tread on it.