Safe Battery Disposal

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55% of Australians incorrectly dispose of batteries. Australian B-cycle  “Never bin your batteries” aims to help consumers understand the risks of throwing batteries away in regular bins. It emphasises the need to never put used batteries in general waste or recycling bins, to instead tape the terminals with clear sticky tape and take them to a B-cycle accredited drop off point for safe recycling. This mitigates environmental harm and fire risks, and costs to community infrastructure – see the video on how to tape batteries. Taping used batteries reduces the risk of terminals touching, which is a fire hazard. It also makes button batteries less likely to be swallowed or inserted by young children and reduces the severity of injuries.  

Consumers Federation of Australia (CFA) engages with these issues through the  CFA Standards Project, supporting CFA representatives to participate on Standards Australia technical committees such as CS-018 Safety of children’s toys, CS-118 button batteries, and EL-005 Secondary batteries which develop standards i.e. documents established by consensus that provide rules, guidelines or characteristics for products, services and systems that we use every day. CFA representatives ensure the impact on consumers is always a central part of committee considerations. You can view a standard free of charge in the Standards Australia Reader Room which provides limited access i.e. ability to view three (3) unique standards in one calendar year for a 24 hr period, find out how to access here.

Find out more about the CFA Standards Project and how you can get involved and make a difference.