Recycling - blue bins

At last a plan to help us safely dispose of small electrical items

January 2024  With 2023 out of the way, most people will be hoping that 2024 is better locally, nationally and internationally. The prospects aren’t great, and even the tiniest bits of good news are very welcome.

The proposals about the recycling of small items of electrical waste fall into this category – their not world changing but will help with a source of irritation and frustration for many people.

We have become used to putting out our blue and brown bins for recycling, and arranging for large items including old white goods such as freezers and washing machines to be taken away. We store spent batteries until we can take them to a disposal point at a supermarket, but there is still a gap as far as recycling is concerned – small electrical items such as kettles, hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, videos, telephones, power tools and more.

Electrical items contain lead and other toxins which can easily cause contamination to soil and water. The Science Museum says that each year in the UK the amount of electrical waste we create could fill the new Wembley Stadium six times. A retailer may take back your old, broken or damaged electrical items and for a fee the Borough Council can arrange to collect large items including large electrical items.

But there is no kerbside collection for small electrical items. They can be taken to one of the main recycling sites such as the one at Coalville, or to one of a few electrical recycling banks. The nearest is at Bosworth College at Desford. Many will feel that travelling to Desford or Coalville

is not a particularly environmentally way of disposing of small electrical items. The Government proposals out for consultation until June will, if implemented, fill the gap.

It seems an incredible figure, but the Government says that every year 500 tonnes of Christmas lights are discarded in the UK. Smaller household electricals such as cables, toasters, kettles and power tools weighing an estimated 155,000 tonnes are wrongly thrown in the bin each year. UK homes are thought to hoard a further 527 million unwanted electrical items containing valuable materials such as gold, silver and platinum.

New arrangements proposed

A range of measures are proposed for introduction from 2026 which would mean collections of waste electricals directly from households – saving the public from having to trek to distant electrical disposal points. The suggestion that the collections would be financed by producers of electrical items, not the taxpayer, may prove controversial, though it can be argued that the price we pay for goods should include the ultimate costs of disposal or recycling.

Large retailers could be asked to provide collection drop points for electrical items in-store, free of charge, without the need to buy a replacement product. Retailers and online sellers might also take responsibility for collecting unwanted or broken large electrical items such as fridges or cookers when delivering a replacement.

“Every year millions of household electricals across the UK end up in the bin rather than being correctly recycled or reused,” said Recycling Minister Robbie Moore. “This is a sheer waste of our natural resources and has to stop. We all have a drawer of old tech somewhere that we don’t know what to do with and our proposals will ensure these gadgets are easy to dispose of without the need for a trip to your local tip.”

It’s also proposed that suppliers of vapes properly finance the cost of their separate collection and treatment when the items become waste. Nearly 5 million vapes are now thrown away every week, and the potential yearly cost of collecting and recycling vapes which have been incorrectly disposed of is an estimated £200 million.

A recent study on public attitudes and behaviours found that many people are unaware of, or have difficulty accessing, recycling points for waste electricals. Around three-quarters of UK adults say they would recycle their electricals at their local supermarket, electrical retailer or charity retailer if it was available to them.

The Goverment consultation commenced on December 28 and runs until 7 March 2024. It can be found at https://consult.defra.gov.uk.

Don’t bin those old batteries

Virtually every home uses batteries. They’re in our phones, watches, clocks, toys, remote controls, computers, garden devices, and now even in our cordless vacuum cleaners. Many are rechargeable, but when they eventually fail and become “zombie batteries” we have the chore of getting rid of them, as there are rules regarding the disposal of batteries. Although they should not be thrown in the waste bin, or even the recycling bin, sometimes a mistake may be made and in they go. Does it really matter?

Well, yes it does.

Some household batteries contain lithium, which can ignite when placed under pressure and exposed to oxygen. These are often the conditions batteries come under in bin lorries or crushed under the movement of waste at the council’s depot, with potentially dangerous effects. In Leicestershire waste crews regularly salvage dumped batteries from recycling and waste bins, and at least a quarter of people in the UK admit to binning batteries. It only takes one rogue battery to cause a fire, and the total cost of battery fires to the country has been estimated at £150 million each year.

Batteries that haven’t been removed from electricals cause more than 700 fires in waste trucks and waste sites, according to research conducted amongst local authorities across the UK. The research was commissioned to raise awareness of how householders can recycle their batteries and electricals.

UK local authorities were surveyed, with nearly 90% saying that fires caused by batteries are an increasing problem. There are now 350% more fires caused by batteries in the waste stream than previously reported.

A national campaign, led by the Environmental Services Association, aims to tackle the growing number of serious “zombie battery” fires started by carelessly discarded batteries at recycling facilities. It is supported by Leicestershire County Council.

Both Barwell and Coalville recycling household waste sites were forced to close temporarily last year, after discarded batteries caused fires. In June 2022 the Barwell site was shut to the public after a fire caused by an ordinary household battery amongst the rubbish damaged the compacting machinery.

In November a smoking bin lorry had to be escorted by fire crews through Thringstone after a suspected battery fire. Collections in the Coalville area had to be paused after the crew noticed smoke from the back of the waste lorry. On returning to the depot crews found discarded batteries and a dumped laptop, which could also have exploded en-route. Two fire engines monitored the smoking waste as it was cooled.

In September motorists tried to stop a refuse vehicle after a blaze broke out during a collection trip in the Melton area. It had been caused by batteries being left in a bin and then mixed in with other rubbish when it was collected.

Advances in recycling

In 2021 a team led by Leicester University developed a new battery recycling method using ultrasonic waves to separate valuable materials from electrodes.

“This novel procedure is 100 times quicker and greener than conventional battery recycling techniques and leads to a higher purity of recovered materials,” said Project Leader Professor Andy Abbott. It was developed with the Faraday Institution to tackle recycling of electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

Current methods for battery recycling often involve feeding end-of-life batteries into a shredder or high-temperature reactor, with a complex set of physical and chemical processes required to produce useable materials.

If end-of-life lithium-ion batteries are disassembled rather than shredded there is potential to recover more material in a purer state. Disassembly of lithium-ion batteries has been shown to recover around 80 per cent of the original material.

Where can I leave batteries for recycling?

Both Groby Co-op stores are listed as recycling collection points. You can find out where to recycle batteries responsibly, and more about the dangers of “zombie batteries” by visiting www.takecharge.org.uk. The County Council gives this advice :

• Never put batteries in your general waste or recycling bins.
  

• Only recycle batteries using a proper battery recycling service, such as  at your local recycling and household waste site, or battery collection point often found in supermarkets.
  

• Remove batteries from broken devices if you can and recycle both thebattery and the device.
  

• If you’re unable to remove the battery, recycle it together with your old electricals.

This article was overtaken by events, when all recycling was placed in one bin.

2011  In the last edition of the Spotlight Laurie Goldberg asked a question about the household waste recycling service. In a letter to Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council he wrote "During the collection today in Groby I saw your operatives take each blue bin, remove the paper caddy and empty the contents into the main bin before placing the bin on the truck for emptying into the vehicle. What is the point of us separating dry recycling material if your staff promptly mix them up again? The Council prides itself on its performance in recycling waste - what I have just witnessed calls that claim into doubt." Another resident, Peter Cooke, says he has seen the same practice. "The latest issue (no.48) of Hinckley & Bosworth's Borough Bulletin has a 'Your questions answered' article about recycling on page 16,” wrote Peter. "One of the paragraphs states 'However, it is still very important that the paper/cardboard is still kept separate from other items and vice versa.' This is totally contrary to what Laurie Goldberg and I witnessed on our collection days."

So are things going wrong or are their eyes deceiving them? The Borough Council has an explanation but it is likely that the complainants, along with other residents, will watch future collections very carefully before they are convinced. So what does the Council have to say?

"Other residents have contacted the council in the past, quite rightly concerned after seeing what appears to be their carefully separated items apparently being mixed with the content of other bins," explained a spokesperson. "We would like to assure residents, that whilst it may look like materials are being mixed together, that is not quite what is happening. The crews use an intermediate bin for transferring paper/card from a number of caddies before tipping this into the vehicle. This can of course give rise to the concern that separated items are being mixed, but paper/card and other materials are then placed into two separate sections at the back of the refuse vehicle – this can be clearly seen on the photo."

He acknowledges, however, that Laurie does not believe that this is what he saw. "Curiously though, in this case, when we contacted your correspondent to explain this, he insisted that this was not what he witnessed. We were concerned to hear this so, as a precautionary measure, we checked the contents of the collection vehicle when it returned to the Depot and whilst we didn’t find any contamination of materials in that load, we are not complacent."

Residents are the eyes and ears of the Council and the spokesperson appreciated someone taking time to raise the issue, adding that "we will continue to monitor this closely as part of our service quality checks and thank your correspondent for bringing it to our attention. The Borough's recycling contractors welcome anyone to visit their recycling depot in Coventry to see how items collected for recycling are sorted ready for the next stage in the recycling journey.” If you are interested email your contact details to grobynews@live.co.uk.