Aberdeenshire Council is urging residents to remove batteries from electricals before recycling them after a fire at Peterhead’s household recycling centre last week.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attended the site on Thursday 27 February to tackle the fire that resulted in damage to the electricals container and the loss of valuable electrical items for recycling. The recycling centre was reopened later that same day.
Fires occur when electricals containing batteries are thrown in with household waste or recycling and crushed or damaged in bin lorries and recycling centres. They cause serious damage to the local community, put collection crews in danger, impact local services, and cause air pollution levels to spike in local areas.
Environment and sustainability head of service Ewan Wallace said: “All recycling taken to our household recycling centres is greatly appreciated. However, when it comes to electricals, please remove any batteries wherever possible and recycle them separately to ensure the safety of our staff and facilities.”
Household batteries can be recycled separately from other electrical waste at all household recycling centres. Household batteries can also be recycled as part of a home’s weekly kerbside collections using freely available pink battery bags. Simply leave a full and sealed battery bag on top of your kerbside bin being collected on any given week.
Battery bags are available for free from local household recycling centres, libraries, or service points. Please note that these should not be used to dispose of vapes - they are for household batteries only.
Specialised drums are available at all household recycling centres across Aberdeenshire to safely store vapes or e-cigarettes before they are transported to Veolia in Portsmouth for recycling, where 94% of all the materials inside them can be recovered.
Electricals, if in suitable condition and with all parts and plugs, can also be donated to a directly to a charity or via a reuse container in Banchory, Ellon, Laurencekirk, Macduff, Stonehaven, Portlethen, or Peterhead household recycling centres. If not, they can be placed - with batteries removed - in the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) container at any of the council’s recycling centres. WEEE containers are also available at Port Elphinstone’s Davidson Park and at Insch’s leisure centre car park.