South Australians will have their first opportunity to recycle embedded battery products for free at a trial drop-off event being held on the weekend of Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 November, from 9am to 3pm.
This event, hosted by Green Industries SA, is being driven by the increasing risks of fires from batteries being placed in kerbside bins.
As more and more of our electronic devices come with embedded and non-removable batteries, this fire risk is increasing.
What products will be accepted?
Any product weighing under 20kg – that is, a battery not easily removed from a product – can be dropped off for free during the event.
That includes:
- bluetooth speakers and headphones
- electric toothbrushes
- e-scooters, e-bikes and hover boards
- flashing/light up toys – particularly wands or other hard plastic products
- personal care devices (such as shavers and massagers)
- powerpacks and portable charging devices
- remote controlled and ride-on toys
- vacuum cleaners (cordless hand-held and robotic)
- vapes and e-cigarettes
- wearable devices such as smart watches, trackers and medical aids.
When and where will the event take place?
The drop-off event will run from 9am to 3pm on Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 November at these four sites:
- Adelaide Waste and Recycling Centre 181 Morphett Rd, North Plympton
- Campbelltown Works Depot 6 Newton Rd, Campbelltown
- Heathfield Resource Recovery Centre 32 Scott Creek Rd, Heathfield
- NAWMA Resource Recovery Centre Gate 3, Bellchambers Rd, Edinburgh North
It’s important to note that these sites won’t be accessible before or after this event to dispose of embedded batteries, so make sure you get there during the opening times of the event.
What products won’t be accepted?
There are a few battery-related items that won’t be accepted at the collection points, including:
- loose handheld AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, 6V and button cell (‘watch’) batteries
- detachable appliance batteries and power tool batteries
- e-waste or household appliances.
This is because South Australians can already easily recycle these types of products at free collection points across the state.
To find out where to take your loose batteries, e-waste and other tricky waste items, visit the Which Bin website.
Why is it so important to keep batteries out of bins?
Batteries by themselves are not usually dangerous, but when batteries are placed in kerbside bins and they are combined with other materials and crushed, fire risks increase greatly.
There have been more than 10,000 fires and fire events across Australia in the last year related to batteries incorrectly placed in kerbside bins.
This trial event will focus on ‘difficult to recycle’ and ‘hard to access’ embedded batteries, particularly lithium-ion batteries. Most of us have many of these kinds of batteries in our house that are no longer working. You can recycle these embedded battery products for free at this trial event.
What will happen with the collected batteries?
Following the event, the collected embedded battery materials will be transported by Cleanaway to the EcoCycle processing facility in Victoria.
At the processing facility, the materials will go through a separation process, where the battery components will be removed from each item. From there, the batteries and non-battery materials will go on to be recycled and turned into new products.
Batteries contain recyclable materials and metals like copper, aluminium, manganese, zinc, lithium, cobalt and steel that have many uses in manufacturing, especially electronics. Recycling these materials avoids the need to mine and refine virgin rare earth materials contributing to a more circular economy.
This trial will inform the future development of pathways for battery recycling in SA.
Further details about the trial event, including what items will be accepted and the locations, are available on the Green Industries SA website.
This article was prepared by Green Industries SA and is reproduced here with permission.
