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

[Pavementworrier]

Sims removed but otherwise just as they were

I'd been keeping of them to "destroy securely" but they're driving me insane around the house so enough was enough

Will I get digitally kidnapped now? They were really old and shit phones.

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

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

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

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.

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'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

Maybe someone in a computer repair place could advise you?

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.

That's quite a shark jump.

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.

@HoarFrosted Where I live in Somerset you can put out any electrical item up to toaster size with your recycling - this includes phones, hairdryers, kettles. You have to bag it and put it on top of the recycling bin and it's taken with the normal collection. Might be worth checking if that's the case where you are.

I think you can take batteries, pretty much any ones - to little collection boxes at the supermarket. You don't have to go to the skips/recycling centre. I just take them when I go shopping (to be recycled.)

I have kept all the mobile phones I have ever had @Pavementworrier (about 6 in all, so has DH - he has had 3!) My DC recycle theirs when they get a new one...

Don't worry about not realising you should dispose of batteries carefully. Not everyone knows this. Hopefully this thread will make more people aware.

How long did it take you to set up the DD - longer than to put a pot in your kitchen?

have you asked locally about people who recycle electricals and metal generally? Where I live they will collect bundles of small items and bigger ones, I fopund mine by asking on facebook

@Pavementworrier I wouldn't worry
Just try to recycle in future - check online if you arent sure what can and cannot be

I have all the laptops I've ever owned and it's a nightmare!!! Opening cupboards and they fall out. One day I'll do something with them but don't feel I can trust a recycling place without deatroying the hard drives myself (somehow)

I forgot to tax my car last year, drove it around over 6 months untaxed and received a hefty fine as a result. Anyway this thread has at least reminded me that I got a letter through last week to say my tax is due again and I have no idea what I’ve done with it so almost certainly would have forgotten to do it again, but have set a reminder on my phone so hopefully will remember to do it tomorrow 🤞 I didn’t know you could set up a direct debit but this is probably a good idea if it means it’ll start coming out automatically. Will try and remember to put a battery pot out at the same time so hopefully I can get out of the habit of binning them!

This can't be right. I live next door to the church and they put a recycling bin out every Tuesday same as me.

but batteries can be taken to any shop which sells them. They don't have to be the brand sold by the shop.

OP Stop digging.

It's evident that you are not very bright. Coming back and attempting to provide witty responses makes you look even dimmer.

You can do a factory reset to clear your data, remove the sim card and change your passwords on your Apple, Cloud, Google, banking etc accounts and apps. Then recycle the device. If MI5 or someone wanted to retrieve your data they might manage it, but the chances of anyone being that persistent with an unknown device from the recycling centre are tiny.

I did grow up throwing used batteries and broken small electrical items in the bin, so I don't think it's completely outlandish that someone might have simply continued to do this and not realised that laws have changed.

I now think actually my mum was probably wrong to throw batteries in the bin as someone has posted a law from 1990 which definitely would have applied during my childhood. I don't remember saving used batteries for anything, though we did save up glass bottles and jars and take them to the bottle bank, and we spent ages cutting up cereal boxes to take the tokens into school.

Kerbside collection of electrical items sounds practical although I am amused by the image of someone tying up a Rampant Rabbit in a clear plastic bag and placing it neatly atop their bin now. I live in Germany which does not have kerbside collection of electronics, but actually does have long lists of items about what you can and cannot put in communal bins taped to the bins themselves and myriad complicated rules, to which I have clearly assimilated because I find myself arguing with my neighbour over them. (But I mean, really, no, you cannot fill up the entire recycling bin with dead leaves because they are "dry", they do not fit the definition of recyclable or match any of the little pictures.)

We tend to have bags and boxes of used batteries all over the place (I think we moved house with some!) because I never remember to take them anywhere and if I do the collection points are designed to accept one at a time which I always find bizarre. Who is finished with an AA battery in the middle of the street and needs somewhere to conveniently throw it away? It can't be the vape users because they predated those. Ikea at least has a reasonable disposal point for all electricals so if I remember, I take them all there. But I have dozens and it would take hours to feed them into the tiny bin by school or the one at the supermarket.

Actually now I wonder if the single battery at a time thing is for preventing accidental fires. Maybe I should just start taking them in small batches.

presumably only for electronics rather than electricals?

Can I just ask what the difference is? I don't actually know and had registered the use of both in the WEEE acronym but I would have used both words as almost synonyms.

if they are really old ones with hard drives, you can unscrew the case and disinter the hard drive which can then be physically trashed. I have done this a couple of times in the past for myself and once for my deparment at work many many years ago when there was no IT department, yes I am that old. You may also be able to get an old computer going enough to use a wipe app on it, maybe by connecting it to another computer....have done this too.

Where I live the council put a sticker on Every Single household blue recycling bin last year, which basically say 'Don't put batteries in your bin!!!'.

Every single blue bin. So clearly they are worried about it. Hopefully other councils will do similar and maybe it will reach your communal bins too.

I'm sure you're not the only one who is ignorant, but yes, putting batteries in the bin is rubbish, for environmental reasons and for safety (fire hazard!) reasons.

Pssst.......in all the supermarkets round me, the lid lifts off the recycling bin and you can dump them in en mass......