We’re asking our community to be on the lookout for ‘zombie batteries’ when doing their household recycling.
Council strongly advises against throwing old batteries into your normal household bins where they can become a hazard.
Waste Management Officer Josephine St John warned old batteries can ignite or explode when crushed or punctured during the collection and processing of waste and recycling.
“Our recycling processor Visy had a small fire at their Smithfield facility only last week that was very likely caused by a lithium-ion battery,” Ms St John said.
“Kiama residents are great recyclers, with 75 per cent of all our waste collected being either recycled or repurposed.”
“But batteries are a hazardous item and must be treated as such.”
Ms St John urged people to separate batteries from their other recycling and use the battery recycling point at our Community Recycling Centre at Minnamurra.
“The Community Recycling Centre is a permanent drop-off centre for residents to dispose, free of charge, common household problem wastes, such as batteries, that can’t be collected via Council’s kerbside waste collection service,”
“We accept all batteries from household alkaline batteries, lithium-ion batteries typically found in laptops, tablets, mobile phones, electric toothbrushes, power tools and e-cigarettes to car and truck batteries.”
The Community Recycling Centre is open Monday – Saturday 8am – 4pm.
