Recycling batteries and mobile phones

Which container?

Please put your used batteries and mobile phones in a recyclable container with a lid and leave it out next to your red boxes on your recycling day. Mobile phones should be put in a separate recyclable container to batteries. A jam jar, margarine tub or plastic takeaway container is perfect because we will recycle the container after it has been emptied.

Please do not put batteries or mobile phones inside your red boxes or blue/yellow bags. They can be difficult for our crew to spot and can cause fires in the collection vehicle and at our recycling depot if mixed in with other types of recycling and waste.

Which batteries can I recycle?

Yes please…

• All AAA and AA cells
• Sizes C and D
• Button batteries e.g. watch and hearing aid batteries
• Laptop batteries
• Power tool batteries
• Mobile phone batteries

Please note we cannot accept vehicle batteries. Please take these to your local Recycling and Household Waste Site.

What types of mobile phone can I recycle?

You can recycle any type of mobile phone with our kerbside collection. Please remove the battery if it is easy to access and put it with your other batteries.

Why should I recycle my batteries and mobile phones? 

Batteries or electrical products and toys containing batteries should never be put in your black bin. Batteries can cause fires in your bin at home or in our collection vehicle when your bin is emptied. This is very dangerous and could cause harm to our crews and others. By recycling them, you're helping the planet, whilst helping to keep our crews and your neighbours safe too.

Batteries and mobile phones are made from important resources and chemicals. If you put batteries into your black bin, they will be taken to a landfill site where they cause harm to the environment. Recycling batteries and mobile phones means these precious metals can be recovered to make new products instead.

How are they recycled?

The batteries we send for recycling are first sorted by chemistry type and shredded. Each type of battery then goes through a different process to recover metals such as lead, cadmium, zinc, lithium and mercury. These metals can be used to make new batteries and in industries like the steel industry.

Your mobile phone contains precious and useful metals such as copper, silver, gold and palladium. Recycling your mobile phone means these metals can be recovered and re-used instead of mining for them.