Battery Recycling

In an age dominated by technology, batteries have become an essential part of our lives. From powering our smartphones to running electric vehicles, their significance cannot be underestimated.

However, with this growing reliance on batteries comes an alarming increase in battery-related fires.

All batteries, particularly lithium-ion batteries, should never be disposed of in your kerbside red, yellow or green bins. They contain chemical substances that can be harmful to human health and the environment and are highly combustible.

Batteries not only have the potential to spark fires but also contain valuable heavy metals like lead, mercury and lithium, so binning them is a waste of these resources and a nasty environmental pollutant when incorrectly disposed.

There are a number of options available to residents of the Northern Rivers to safely dispose of batteries, depending on whether they are removable or embedded.

Removable Batteries

Many products have removable batteries. When these are used, tape both ends of the battery terminals with clear sticky tape, store them in a safe location out of reach of children and then drop them off at your nearest battery recycling collection point.

How to tape battery terminals:

Safe disposal and recycling of removable batteries

Loose handheld (AA, AAA, C, D, 9V, 6V and button cell batteries) can be recycled at the following locations:

Your local Community Recycling Centre - Link
Household Chemical CleanOut events - Link
Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, IGA and Bunnings
At any B-cycle accredited location (up to 5kgs) - Link

Car batteries can be recycled at any Community Recycling Centre or Household Chemical CleanOut event.

Find out more about Safe Battery Recycling through the NSW EPA

Embedded Batteries

An embedded battery is permanently built into a device and cannot be easily and/or safely removed, meaning they cannot be recycled separately. They are often found in rechargeable items like smart watches, vacuums and Bluetooth speakers.

Products with embedded batteries are considered problematic as they can be difficult to dispose of or recycle at their end of life due to the different components and materials that they’re made of.

Embedded Battery Recycling at
Lismore Community Recycling Centre

New
FREE Trial

The NSW EPA has established a trial, in partnership with Lismore City Council, to accept products with embedded batteries.

Residents of the Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley, Kyogle, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Tweed local government areas are able to drop off items containing embedded batteries at the Lismore Community Recycling Centre (CRC) for free, located at:

Address

Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre
313 Wyrallah Road, East Lismore

Hours

Mon to Fri 7.30am - 3.30pm

Sat & Sun 9am - 4pm

Contact

Phone 1300 873 387

MORE INFO

What products are accepted at the Lismore Community Recycling Centre as part of the Embedded Batteries Trial?

Common items you might have at home that may contain an embedded battery are:

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 (eg. shavers)
Powerpacks and portable charging devices
Remote controlled and ride-on toys
Vacuum cleaners (cordless hand-held and robotic)
Vapes
Wearable devices such as smart watches, trackers and medical aids

If you have an unusual product, please phone the Lismore CRC on (02) 6625 0500 ahead of arrival, to see if it can be accepted.

In addition to the Lismore Community Recycling Centre, 20 other councils, in partnership with the NSW EPA are participating in the embedded batteries trial. For more information including the location of all participating Community Recycling Centres visit the NSW EPA website.

What products are not accepted as part of the Embedded Batteries Trial?

Products covered under the National Television and Computer Recycling Scheme (NTCRS) should be directed to your Council’s e-waste collection, at your local Community Recycling Centre. This includes e-waste such as televisions, computers, printers, computer parts and peripherals. E-waste products containing an embedded battery, such as rechargeable gaming controllers and laptops, are also accepted as part of the NTCRS rather than through the trial.

For more information on the NTCRS, please visit: dcceew.gov.au

Mobile phones and associated accessories should be directed to your nearest MobileMuster collection point. MobileMuster is the product stewardship scheme for the collection and recycling of old and broken phones, chargers and accessories. These can be recycled at any MobileMuster location.

Oversize items are not accepted. Check with your Council before presenting anything over 20kgs or that is bulky/requiring special delivery and/or more than one person from a manual handling perspective.