Keep the festive fun going
Published on 12 December 2024
With Christmas around the corner, many presents that we will buy or receive may have batteries or even rechargeable batteries.
Batteries contain toxic materials which not only harm our environment but can cause issues such as fire hazards. When overheated or damaged, lithium-ion batteries, which are found in many rechargeable devices, may trigger fierce fires that are difficult to extinguish and generate toxic smoke.
Each year Council's waste contractor, Solo Resource Recovery, experiences a number of truck fires believed to have been caused by the disposal of batteries in household bins. Just recently one of the waste collection trucks caught fire and while the driver was able to contain it with a fire extinguisher, the MFS needed to attend and around 4.8 tonnes of recycle material had to go to general waste as it could no longer be recycled.
Fortunately, no one was injured in this incident, however much damage was caused to the electrics of the truck.
Batteries should never be put in your household bins.
There are many used battery collection points in West Torrens including:
- Officeworks, Keswick
- Battery World, Hilton
- Metrowaste, Thebarton
- IKEA, Adelaide Airport
- Adelaide Waste and Recycling Centre, North Plympton
- Bunnings - all local locations
- Woolworths - all local locations
- Foodland - all local locations
- Coles - all local locations
- Aldi - all local locations.
You can also recycle batteries at Council's Civic Centre and Hamra Centre Library. With items that have rechargeable batteries, make sure you remove the battery before recycling this as e-waste.
Prevent fires
Even used batteries have residual charge so it's important to place sticky tape around the battery 'terminal' before recycling. The terminal is the electrical connection point of the battery.
For more information about recycling batteries, visit bcycle.com.au