Is It Ok To Throw Batteries In The Bin?

Did you know that batteries are the most common form of hazardous waste that comes from domestic and commercial wheelie bins?

Current figures of battery waste is in the high 10 of thousands (per year) and is expected to exceed a 100,000 tonnes by 2036 if we don’t do something about it.

So What Is The Problem?

Most batteries contain environmentally damaging (and hazardous) waste that will pollute our precious environment. When you throw batteries in your bin, they go straight to the landfill where the lead, cadmium and mercury creates a dangerous environment with the potential to poison people and animals. Also will they contaminate the soil and water. These harmful materials do not dissipate very quickly and will be around for a long time.

All of the above happens when batteries go to the landfill sites, so just image the damage to our environment when they end up else where!

The Solution (There is more than one)

As I said before sending batteries to landfill is a huge waste of valuable resources, but if recycled properly, 95% of the components of a battery can be turned into new batteries or used in other industries.

Be part of the solution by:

Minimise

Try to minimise your battery use. I know this can be quite difficult with our “portable “device era but try to connect to mains where ever possible.

Rechargeable

Probably the easiest and most common way is to use rechargeable batteries. Most of the batteries on the market today can be recharged about 1000 times which saves money as well as batteries. Here are few options on Amazon.

Recycle

Not many people do this and it’s probably the most important one.

Supermarkets are catching on to the importance of battery waste and so offer collection points. At the time of writing this Aldi provide this service and you should check ouy their Battery Reycling pages for more information.

In Ballina the Community Recycling Centre accepts batteries (and other hazardous waste) for free up to 20kgs.

If we clean your bins and for some reason you can not take your batteries to the Recycling centre, give us a call and the next time we go there we maybe able to take it for you. (The only reason we wont take it if it exceeds our current loads and exceeds the weight maximums!)