GWMC Facilities Manager Andrea Baldwin is encouraging local residents to bring items with embedded batteries to the Gregadoo Waste Management Centre to be disposed of properly. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Fresh from changes to its waste, recycling and green waste collection processes, Wagga Wagga City Council has begun a trial to safely dispose of embedded batteries.
The trial encourages residents to refrain from throwing items with embedded batteries, e.g. Bluetooth speakers and headphones, vapes, electric toothbrushes, e-scooters, e-bikes, hover boards and cordless vacuum cleaners, into their fortnightly red lid waste bins and instead deliver them to the Gregadoo Waste Management Centre.
Upon visiting the Gregadoo site, customers will see several collection bins with signs detailing where items with embedded batteries should be disposed.
According to the NSW Environment Protection Authority, products with embedded batteries are considered problematic as they can be difficult to dispose of or recycle due to the components and materials they are made of.
“All batteries, particularly lithium-ion batteries, should never be disposed of in your kerbside red, yellow or green bins as they contain chemical substances that can be harmful to human health and the environment,” a statement reads.
GWMC Facilities Manager Andrea Baldwin detailed the importance of recycling embedded batteries and why they are so difficult to dispose of.
“By collecting your items with embedded batteries, we can support innovation in the recycling industry and increase the chance of reclaiming the precious metals used in battery construction,” Ms Baldwin said.
“Batteries are embedded into so many of our everyday devices. This kind of technology is here to stay. We need our community to help support safe disposal of these items, so they don’t end up in our waste stream and in landfills.
“Therefore, we want residents to start bringing any end-of-life items with embedded batteries to Gregadoo Waste Management Centre for collection today.”
Ms Baldwin explained the process of arriving at Gregadoo and disposing of the batteries appropriately.
“It’s pretty easy. You just arrive, look for the bin with the signs on it and dispose of them at that point,” she said.
“You can always talk to one of our attendants here, and they’ll support the other resident or the owner to come in and just make sure that they’re placed in the bins appropriately.
“Vapes are a particular problem. People think that they’re recycling, and so they’re placing them in the yellow lidded bin, and some of the other items are actually being placed in your rubbish bin, in your red lidded bin.
“So we are asking that anything with a battery, including empty vapes, do not get placed in your curbside bins, and that we do bring them out here, and we’ve got an opportunity to send them off to be recycled.”
