County Durham residents and businesses are being reminded to dispose of batteries, mobile phones, cleaning products and solvents safely.
Durham County Council is urging people to recycle or dispose of batteries and household solvents correctly and not to put them in their rubbish or recycling wheeled bins.
Batteries and solvents contain hazardous materials. As well as being harmful if they are not disposed of correctly, putting them in the rubbish or recycling bin can also pose a fire risk.
Household batteries like those used in television remotes and toys can be recycled at all the council’s household waste recycling centres. Most supermarkets and County Durham primary schools also have battery recycling collection points.
Larger household batteries such as those found in drones, cameras, mobile phones, laptops, and power tools, as well as car batteries, can also be recycled and should be taken to one of the council’s household waste recycling centres.
Household gas bottles and canisters like the ones used for barbeques, and helium canisters of the kind used to fill balloons, should be safely disposed of at household waste recycling centres too.
John Shannon, the council’s strategic waste manager, said: “It is really important that batteries and solvents are disposed of properly, as throwing them away with general rubbish could be dangerous.
“By recycling dead batteries, the valuable materials that have been used to make them can be used to make new batteries, which reduces the need to mine new materials and also cuts carbon emissions, so it’s not only a safer option but a greener one too.”
Businesses (who cannot use household waste recycling centres) are reminded to dispose of these items at a fully licenced waste facility.
More information on the location of recycling centres can be found at www.durham.gov.uk/hwrc
To find out more about which items can be recycled and what can be disposed of in household recycling and rubbish bins, visit www.durham.gov.uk/whatgoeswhere