Battery Recycling in the City of Melbourne area
Batteries can contain plastics, metals and toxic metals such as cadmium, mercury and lead. Used rechargeable batteries are a hazardous waste and should not be placed in the rubbish bin. This includes batteries in laptops, mobiles, tools and cameras.
The Australian Battery Recycling Initiative (ABRI) is an industry and community working group, established to investigate a coordinated national collection and recycling scheme for batteries. Currently, there are a number of collection and/or recycling programs accepting single-use and rechargeable batteries:
Cleanaway's Battery Recycling Program
Waste management company Cleanaway runs a nationwide battery recycling program that accepts all types of batteries (other than motor vehicle batteries). Flat-packed boxes are posted out to your location and full boxes sent back for recycling with an administration fee. To find out more visit cleanaway.com.au/batteries. SITA conducts a similar program in some states.
Battery World
Participating Battery world stores will collect all types of batteries. To find out if Battery World near you is collecting batteries, call 13 17 60 or visit batteryworld.com.au
Councils
Councils often have hazardous waste collections or drop-off facilities for batteries - visit the City of Melbourne pages on RecyclingNearYou.com.au for further information and contact details.
See if primary batteries and other hazardous wastes are collected in your area.
Mobile Phone Batteries
Mobile phone batteries are accepted in the Cleanaway and Battery World programs above. They are also collected along with mobile phones and other accessories in the MobileMuster program. See the City of Melbourne mobile phone recycling page.
Computer Batteries
Computer batteries are accepted in the Cleanaway and Battery World programs above. They are also collected along with computers and other accessories in various state or local computer recycling or re-use programs. See the City of Melbourne computer recycling page for further details.
Motor Vehicle Batteries
Many garages will recycle you old car battery when they replace it. Many transfer station/waste management centres take also vehicle batteries. See if there is a drop off location near you collecting vehicle batteries or see the Vehicle Battery Recycling in the City of Melbourne area page for other listings.
The RACV offers an annual collection of used car batteries. To find out more visit racv.com.au
About Batteries
Single-use batteries are usually alkaline batteries with Zinc and Manganese chemistry. Rechargeable batteries are commonly Nickel Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride or Lithium Ion. Rechargeable batteries are found in the same shapes and voltage as single-use batteries, as well as specifically designed for laptops, mobile phones and electronic equipment.
How to reduce your battery waste
Try to minimise battery usage by connecting appliances to the mains power where possible. Buying rechargeable batteries is an important way to reduce battery waste. Each battery can be recharged up to 1000 times, saving you money and reducing pollution from discarded batteries.
There are many battery rechargers available. Planet Ark endorses Varta's Charge 'n' Go, which conveniently takes less than 15 minutes to recharge.
More information
Batteries can be processed to recover plastics and metals, some of which are used to manufacture new batteries.
See Planet Ark's Battery Recycling Factsheet for further information on battery composition and recycling.
