Batteries are amazing. They host portable electricity used for all kinds of household items.

Each year, we throw away around 600 million batteries in the UK. Laid end-to-end these batteries would reach from the UK to Australia and back again.

Batteries contain heavy metals and minerals such as manganese, cobalt, nickel, and zinc, which can be toxic even in tiny quantities. Please don’t place these in a general waste bin as they’ll go to landfill, where they leak into the ground and cause soil and water pollution.

The solution is battery recycling. Any shop that sells more than one pack of 4 AA batteries per day, will provide a battery collection point for you to recycle your used household batteries. And in the Chelmsford district, you should be able to recycle household batteries at your local library too.

If you have lots of electronic items that require batteries, then long term, your wallet and the environment will thank you for using rechargeable batteries.

Large batteries, including car batteries, and now disposable vapes which contain lithium-ion batteries, can be recycled at your local recycling centre.

Recharging and recycling batteries is a great way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect our environment.