where do you dispose of done batteries?

[fartmeistergeneral]

Can't believe I've never thought of this before???!!

Our local "tip" (council run refuse disposal place) has a bin for batteries.

We can't recycle ours in our box scheme [in Lambeth], so I've quite often ended up taking them 75 miles when we have visited my parents as i know they get recycled there!

our tip has a battery bin, but the Green Box Men (as they are known) take them too.

Our local dump takes them for recycling (I think). I think all councils must provide facilities for safe disposal of batteries as they arn't supposed to go in land-fill?

Our council offers recycling for batteries.

our council doesn't but one where I work does but the tip is only open 2 days a week so takes ages before I actually get rid of them

Take mine to the local tip. Also take all the ones from the school where I work.

Are you talking about regular AA type batteries? am i the only one who throws them in the bin

Are there no collection bins at the supermarkets or shops that sell them? Here in Germany we have them in most good supermarkets so not in aldi/lidl. You could ask at the nearest electronics store or Woolworths, places that sell batteries.

I use rechargeables so haven't had to get rid of any for ages.

NEWS FLASH

Sainsbury's launches free battery recycling serviceSainsbury's will be the first retailer in the UK to offer customers a Freepost battery recycling service. This is going to be the only scheme of its kind and is expected to save 2,500 tonnes of batteries going to landfill every year.

From November, Freepost envelopes will be available in stores nationwide to allow customers to send off their old batteries, as well as mobile phones and inkjet printer cartridges, all of which will be re-used or recycled.

This scheme is part of the supermarket's four-pronged attack to help customers cut down on their household waste. The battery recycling service follows the recent launch of Sainsbury's recycled orange carrier bag and compostable packaging saving 10,050 tonnes of plastic every year. Earlier in the year, Sainsbury's also launched state of the art recycling banks at its stores to allow customers to recycle a greater amount of items.

While the average household uses 21 batteries a year, which is 25,000 tonnes of batteries annually, equivalent to 150 Jumbo jets, the UK only recycles 1,000 tonnes of batteries every year*. This new scheme is expected to increase this number significantly.

Rechargeables are the way to go. You can buy a charger and a job lot of batteries from Argos, for £20-30, and then never need to buy a battery again. Or to throw one away for that matter.

NannyL - you are definitely not the only one who chucks them in the bin. Every time I've done it recently though, I've thought to myself, must start a thread about what I'm supposed to do with them.

Small disposable batteries go to the dump. The huge batteries that we use in the electric fencing go back to the company that supplies them - they send me a box with free P&P for the purpose.

We have mostly rechargeable these days though - and quite a lot of solar or wind-up gadgets.

Sherlock, thanks for the Newsflash!

Haven't noticed this down at my local Sainsbury's but no doubt there's a roll out programme. Wonder who they're partnered with & how they're covering the costs. Hope it all works as it sounds like a good idea. Most batteries will fit through the gap in the red post boxes after all. Printer cartridges will have to be taken to the Post Office.

that's good news about sainsbos.

Anyone seen these ads in sunday papers for machines that recharge regular [non-rechargable] AA batteries? Just want to know if they work. Should probably just get normal rechargables i guess.

For those of you whose councils don't recycle batteries, you could possibly put them in touch with Wrap .

Our local Ikea recycle them

In fact it's 'Wrap' who are running Sainsbury's battery/mobile phone/printer cartridge recycling service. A quote from Sainsbury's website;

'Chris Davey, Manager Local Authority Relations, at WRAP (The Waste & Resources Action Programme), said: ''As the manager responsible for WRAP's battery programme, I am pleased that Sainsbury's are introducing a new collection scheme for batteries as well as mobile phones and inkjet cartridges. If the UK is to meet the new challenging recycling targets for batteries, then we need to try a wide range of different collection schemes."