To have thrown a bunch of smashed up old mobile phones in the bin

my best suggestion would be to find a local phone repair shop that you feel you can trust. I believe that you can also recycle any Apple products via Apple free of charge. https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/trade-in#recycle If your photos are stored in the cloud, it may be possible to move your photos off all your devices to an external drive and then delete them from your devices via the cloud and replace them on the devices you have which do work...again you could ask for advice at a local phone repair shop.

That's quite a shark jump.

You're not stupid but you don't seem to be aware of some very ordinary facts about modern life, and you're not arrogant but you get all supercilious when people try to explain them to you. People are getting irritated because disposing safely of hazardous waste is important. Look what happened to Brian Aldridge.

Maybe someone in a computer repair place could advise you?

I'm not surprised that only a third of batteries are recycled. I'm pretty sure that we get info about local electrical recycling every year with our bins. Fine for folk with a car, who can drive to the tip, a nuisance for others - although some retailers will collect your old electrical goods when they deliver the new item(s). I have an accumulation of defunct electrical goods because disposing of them responsibly is going to be a pain.

Would be great if the council could get its arse in gear and offer an annual collection, but that would be way too sensible. We used to have almost free green waste collection (10p per green sack, purchasable from libraries etc.). A well-used service. Then they stopped this and switched to green bins, annual fee (now over £100) payable in advance. Guess what? Most people put what they can't compost into their landfill bin or take car loads of herbiage to the tip.

Batteries are easy though: most supermarkets have a tower for collecting old batteries near the checkouts or customer service. If you can't spot one, just ask. You've probably just trained your brain to ignore all the clutter and haven't noticed it.

We hav

This is a question to which I would like the answer, but I fear it will get lost among the bonkers stuff going on here.

I can't recycle small electricals through the council except by going to the tip, either but round here there are metal recycling companies who will collect bundles of small items or single larger ones. Do you have a local facebook group? Its worth asking on there if you do. If you have a local mobile phone shop, they might take phones, tablets and so on for recycling, the ones near me do and I believe they are paid a small amount by a recycling firm. A longer shot might be to see if you have a local repair cafe or men's shed. Some will take broken small electricals and repair them for donation to people who need them. I think of myself as a lackadaisical recycler and certainly the list of things that my council will take for recycling is woefully short, but to me, safety is the most importand thing.

About five(?) years ago, I set up a monthly direct debit which auto renews every year. Nowhere near comparable!

P S. And now I think this isn't a genuine post.

How do you go about removing your personal data from old devices so you can recycle them? I have an old iPhone and a MacBook I need to dispose of but they are damaged so I can’t switch them on to remove my bank details, pics of children, etc

You don't need a god in order to have meaning in your life. I'd rather live in, and care for, the real world than pretend there'll be something better when I die.

Of course it is.

And yet you posted a recycling/rubbish disposal question on here and asked for opinions. (The focus on batteries is only a part of the whole.)

Because people like you are too lazy to bother and pretend they don’t know

I’m usually fairly clued in on sustainability and recycling, and I’ve seen the battery recycling bins in the supermarket. But I didn’t realize it was illegal or unsafe to stick used batteries in the ordinary bin, I guess because that’s what I grew up doing.

Having read this thread, I won’t do that any more. Thanks to PP (and indirectly to OP!) for educating me.

When it comes to electrical appliances, yes I know about the crossed-out bin symbols, but again I had no idea it was a strict requirement (presumably only for electronics rather than electricals?). In the city where I live, you have to book a slot online at the tip, then take the items there in your car (not a van). There are no other options listed on the council website, and you certainly can’t leave things on top of the wheelie bin. I don’t have access to a car, so I will continue to store old/broken irons, toasters and mobile phones to gather dust in a cupboard…

This is just clickbait. The OP is obviously being deliberately obtuse and awkward just to upset and cause a reaction. EVERYONE knows you should recycle batteries unless she has been living under a stone.

I just listened to Burn the Witch by Queens of the Stoneage and Lithium by Nirvana back to back. Spooky!

That number may well improve now they have banned single use vapes.

It’s just my personal opinion but the 1/3 is probably the majority and the 2/3 is the minority. Just my opinion again but those who are antisocial and don’t give a hoot about society are probably more likely to vape a lot and chuck those vapes on the floor. The normal person is changing the odd kids toy and torch and the vaper is/was going through several disposal vapes per day/week.

No, you are not smart, and you come across as very selfish.

I live in a block of flats. Everything goes in the black bin bag which I change everyday. I walks out batteries in there. Broken toasters, kettles, microwaves, vacuum cleaner. Anything that breaks that can fit in the big bin.

The only thing I would recycle is if I had a big cardboard box. This is because there is no where to store this recycling rubbish. Currently in temporary accommodation and it’s overcrowded. I don’t want bags of crap waiting to be taken to the recycling centre.

Haiti. There I said it.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity, " Martin Luther King Jnr.

Oh my god that’s terrifying. Thank you for sharing - I’m off to check I don’t have any unpackaged batteries rolling around.