Small rechargeable electricals collections

Place your small rechargeable items and their chargers into a carrier bag and put this alongside your blue-lidded bin or bag on your collection day. Please do not present more items, on a single collection day, than will fit in a standard supermarket carrier bag. Individual items should be no larger than a shoe box (so, 30cm x 20cm or 12" x 8").

If it's a rechargeable device, i.e. has a rechargeable battery, and would "fit in a shoe box", it will be accepted by the crew. Laptops and tablets with integrated batteries may be presented.

Carrier bags containing your unwanted electricals will be taken by the collection crew. Once the electricals have been removed at our recycling facility, these bags will be sent to one of our waste treatment facilities to produce energy

We collect small household batteries alongside your kerbside recycling collection every fortnight, view the Battery collection for details.

Between April 2019 and March 2020, batteries caused nearly 260 fires at waste and recycling facilities across the country. To find out more go to Take Charge: Homepage (opens new window).

Some rechargeable items use batteries that are classed as hazardous waste and are a major fire risk. Household waste and recycling is compacted in the back of the collection vehicles and is then mechanically processed at the council's waste sorting or treatment facilities. Each of these processes increase the risk of fire or explosion, which threatens the safety of staff and could cause substantial damage resulting in significant service disruption and additional costs to the council or its contractors. 

It is important that your small rechargeable items are placed in a carrier bag, next to your blue-lidded bin or bag (so that the collection crew can see them) and never in the bin or sack. 

No, please present your small rechargeable electricals in carrier bags, by the side of blue-lidded bins or bags. Residents should not present more items, on a single collection day, than can be presented in a standard supermarket carrier bag. Individual items should be no larger than a shoe box (so, 30cm x 20cm or 12" x 8").

Bags containing the electrical items will be taken, not left behind.

Ensure that you remove any personal information or data. We cannot accept liability for the security of data or personal information contained on any devices placed out for collection.

You should remove all SIM cards and wipe the data on any devices which hold personal information. See How do I delete my data? (opens new window) to assist you with this.

All small rechargeable items presented should be removed by the crew unless incorrect items are presented, or if items have leaked. If this is the case, a sticker will be placed on the bag, advising why the item was not collected.

Rechargeable items can also be taken to your local household recycling centres (HRCs), and to many local retailers, locations of which can be found on find a recycling facility (opens new window).

The rechargeable items will be placed by hand into a separate compartment on the vehicle (for some vehicles this may be in the vehicle cab). When the vehicle arrives at the recycling facility, the rechargeable items will be offloaded by hand into pallet sized stillage boxes to avoid risk of damage by machinery and allow a further check for any non-conforming items.

The crew's existing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) includes gloves, which will protect them from potential hazards.

Small rechargeable items will be transferred to a pallet-sized stillage box at the locations where recycling is tipped. When the box is full, Hills' electrical recycling partner will collect the box and deliver the rechargeable items to a specialist recycling facility where they will be safely dismantled into their core components. These separated components will be used by manufacturers for use in new products.

Carrier bags containing your unwanted electricals will be taken by the collection crew. Once the electricals have been removed at our recycling facility, these bags will be sent to one of our waste treatment facilities to produce energy.

The primary benefit to the council is the reduced risk of fires, both on collection vehicles, and at waste treatment and recycling facilities.

Whilst the weight of small rechargeable items collected is likely to have a modest but positive impact on the council's recycling rate, rechargeable device recycling allows the components to be used again in new products, so contributes to environmental objectives through preventing extraction of new resources.