Take Charge - Join the fight against Zombie Batteries 

The footage is from a Materials Recycling Facility, which is where your recycling goes. These plants are typical across the UK and are designed to separate all of the different recyclable materials from one another, so they can be made into new things. The operatives are there to make sure these materials are good quality and not contaminated with non-recyclable materials. That's why it's important that batteries don't end up in facilities like this - where they have the potential to cause injury. We appreciate consumers cannot remove the batteries from some devices, so these should be recycled with other small electrical items using specialist services. Our website www.takecharge.org.uk has more info!

@@environmentalservicesassoc5888 My council specifically specifies batteries can be disposed of in our recyclable waste bins....

@@neilschofield2325 thanks. Hmm - you sure they don't ask you to put them in a bag or another container first? If not, then the whole contents of the recycling container would have to undergo some very careful sorting once it's been collected. This would very much be the exception rather than the rule. Which council is it?

@@environmentalservicesassoc5888 Cheshire west and Chester, we have two boxes, one for metal and plastic and one for all other recycling including batteries.

@@neilschofield2325 Thanks for flagging this. That's very unusual - we'll have a chat with CW&C to find out how they're separating the materials, while minimising the risk of fires. Definitely not the norm. Most require the batteries to be segregated from other materials.