Household collections

Battery and small electricals collections

Guidance on recycling batteries and small electricals alongside your household recycling collection every fortnight.

Battery collections

Batteries should be placed in a sealed clear sandwich bag, on top of your blue-lidded recycling bin. To ensure minimal use of plastic bags you should ensure you store batteries until you have enough to fill a sandwich bag.

Never put batteries out in wet weather or inside any bin as this can cause fires.

Small electricals collections

Small electricals should be presented in a supermarket carrier bag by the side of your blue-lidded recycling bin, or blue recycling sack. Individual items should be no larger than a shoe box (so around 30 cm x 20 cm or 12" x 8").

What we collect

You should remove all data and SIM cards, see Recycle your electricals: How do I delete my data (opens new window) for more information.

smart speakers, charging devices and MP3 players
electric toothbrushes, shavers and trimmers
all vapes and e-cigarettes
smartwatches, wireless earphones, tablets and e-readers
mobile phones
digital cameras, camcorders, power banks and docking stations
laptops and notebooks
wireless controllers for games consoles and personal digital assistants
cables
Christmas fairy lights. For more information see

Recycling larger electricals

If you have large items to dispose you can take these to your Household Recycling Centre or you can arrange for a collection. See Large item reuse and collection for more information.

What happens to recycled electricals

Your unwanted electricals contain valuable materials including metals such as gold, copper, steel, and aluminium. These materials can be recovered and re-processed into new products from bicycles to life-saving equipment.

To find out what happens to your recycled electricals see YouTube: How are electronics recycled? Ask HypnoCat! (opens new window).