Household and car batteries

The Issue

Sending batteries to landfill is a huge waste of beneficial resources.

When disposed of correctly, around 95% of alkaline and lithium battery components can be recycled in Australia and can be made into new products such as streetlights and car parts!

In Australia, about 350 million batteries are purchased every year. More than two thirds of them end up in landfill, where they can cause health and environmental problems.

Councils and waste contractors have seen a significant rise in the number of truck and rubbish fires caused by batteries, which if damaged are explosive and cause fires that are difficult to put out.

Heavy metals in batteries include cadmium, nickel, lead, and mercury, are all toxic and dangerous to human, animal and environmental health if not managed properly.

The environment is damaged by batteries in landfill because once their casings disintegrate, metals and chemicals inside the battery leach out.

How Can You Help?

You can prevent this type of environmental damage by dropping batteries at a designated drop off point. Once we’ve received them, they can be made into new products such as streetlights and car parts.

Some of the new uses for your old batteries include:

• Recycling nickel to produce stainless steel.
• Recycling acid to form sodium sulphate, which is used to make detergents, glass, and textiles.
• The production of new batteries, fertilisers, waste bins and plant pots

Where can you drop off your batteries?

In Albury, you can dispose of your unwanted vehicle and household batteries at either the Albury Recycling Centre located at the Albury Waste Management Centre or at the many local drop off locations listed here around town:

More Information

B-cycle resources