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.

Exactly. Why bother posting if you didn’t think that it was an issue? It seems very odd.

You’re obviously a wind-up merchant if you think risking causing a fire is amusing. Everyone I know knows that you don’t put batteries or anything electrical in the general waste. Perhaps you’d change your mind if someone you loved was injured or died in a fire caused by this.

Op just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean you're in the majority.

You must walk around with your eyes closed honestly - you open battery packaging without glancing at it, you walk blithely past the battery recycling bins at the supermarket (and perhaps in your workplace too)... so many ways you could have learnt this op! Also if I recall correctly we get a leaflet each year with the recycling collection dates on and that also lists forbidden items.

OP - Legislation was introduced in 2009 to stop people putting batteries in the bin. Since then every supermarket, DIY store and many other places have bins for putting batteries in. You can be fined for putting them in your household waste as it is a legal requirement that all batteries (from AAA to laptop) are recycled.

A bin lorry here caught fire (luckily nobody hurt) when a phone battery was crushed and exploded...

Now you re a cringe. I am disgusted. I really hope you are widing us up. Your poor poor kids if you have any to have a mother this dense

We have to keep small electrical items and batteries separate from our rubbish and they ate collected at the same time as recycling. Special bit on the van for them. (I'm guessing no crusher).

Its a well known fact they can't go in general waste.

OP there are tubs for batteries in most supermarkets. Our office has them even. How can you not have.

We are only ignorant until we learn different.

Now you know.

Anything with a battery doesn't go in the main waste.

Dead vapes don't go in battery disposal tubs. They need to be recycled differently.

Don't be that person.

I thought identity theft was an issue. Can honestly say has never ever ever occurred to me that it was a massive conflagration situation and if it genuinely is (and honestly I'm getting net zero neurosis vibes right now) it should be communicated to the public.

You should have taken them to an electronics shop to be recycled. That’s awful tbh.

Which legislation?

Clean, washed foil (not oily stuff from roast meat etc) has been recycled for at least 40 years.
In the 80's we kept our milk bottle tops to raise money from guide dogs. There should be foil recycling tubs at the tip or community sites with textile and electrical recycling banks.
Battery recycling is in most large supermarkets. Ours also has a water filter recycling point.

You are either thick or on a wind up IMO

This nothing at all to do with "net zero".

You have made it clear that you don't care about binmen's safety.

It's also the hazardous chemical run-off that damages wildlife.

Op just stop, you are coming across really quite awful

I'm really very smart (not arrogance just true). I've never seen this information anywhere. It's not stupid not to know. Where did you see it?

There have been numerous articles and reports about the danger of lithium batteries and how incredibly dangerous the fires that they can cause are because they are extremely hard to extinguish and burn so fiercely, usually with advice about how to dispose of them. I have no idea how you have managed to ignore every single one of these reports and news stories.

Sarcasm and hyperbole is no defence to abject ignorance of what has been communicated for decades now and is on the packaging of everything you buy containing a battery. And everyone on this thread has told you too. Are we all battery manufacturers/marketers? Or do we just pay attention to the world around us? You don't mean zero neurosis, you mean zero fucks. Because you don't remotely care. I would say shame on you, but you don't know what shame is.

Loving the burn the witch energy btw.

Who on earth throws a phone in the bin though? Genuine question? Would you throw a toaster in the bin? Or a telly? It’s just common sense woman.

With a lithium fire, presumably.

Crikey OP, you need to listen up. Are you on our planet?

Next time you go to Sainsbury’s, Tesco et al, look around, often in the entrance or exit, for the battery disposal bins.

I don’t want you to get fined but for goodness sake, given the publicity surrounding battery fires
in lorries and recycling centres please try to tune in and be more responsible. You come over as being way too flippant,

I think a lot of people have otherwise there’d be many more fires. You can recycle batteries in supermarkets easily enough and your local recycling centre will have a small electrical bin. It’s part of the producer responsibility that there are effective recycling streams for the batteries they produce. They are considered hazardous waste so you could get a fpn from the council if they could prove you put them in. It’s unlikely they could in all fairness but those chemicals will be leaching into the soil for decades to come.

Op are you a man?!

I would probably put a toaster in the bin yes. The TV wouldn't fit so I'd book a special collection from the council.

That is illegal. Also you need to destroy any storage in the phone, really before you give them to your local councils WEEE disposal.

Please identify the legal power to issue this mythical fine. Thx.