Batteries, Vapes and Old Electricals: Where They Actually Go

There is one category of household waste where getting it wrong does more than waste material. It sets fire to things. Lithium batteries are now embedded in objects nobody thinks of as electrical: vapes, greetings cards that play a tune, novelty light-up gifts, toothbrushes, headphones. Crushed in the back of a bin lorry, they can ignite. The scale of the problem is documented and it is getting worse, so this is worth ten minutes of attention.

The Numbers

Battery fires in the UK waste stream have risen above 1,200 a year, an increase of 71% on the 700 recorded in 2022, and 94% of the 53 local authorities surveyed by Material Focus reported that fires were increasing. One major waste operator, Veolia, has reported experiencing roughly a fire a day across its vehicles and sites, a situation that has run for around four years.

The volume behind that is enormous. Research for Material Focus put the running total of binned electricals across the UK at 1.1 billion items, alongside 449.9 million loose batteries. Seasonal gadgets are a significant part of it: 168 million light-up items and cheap tech gifts binned over a single year.

Vapes are their own category of problem. Single-use vapes were banned from sale across the UK on 1 June 2025, and yet research conducted for Material Focus in late 2025 and early 2026 found 6.3 million vapes and pods still being thrown away every week. Reusable devices still contain a lithium cell, and they still end up in bins.

Why a small battery is a big deal

Lithium-ion cells store a lot of energy in a small, thin package. Puncture or crush one and the internal layers short together, the cell heats rapidly, and it can enter thermal runaway: a self-sustaining reaction that burns extremely hot, is difficult to extinguish with water, and can spread to neighbouring cells.

A bin lorry is a compactor. A baler at a recovery facility is a bigger one. A pile of mixed recycling waiting to be processed is a large volume of dry, flammable paper and plastic. Those three environments turn a single hidden vape into a vehicle fire or a warehouse fire, and both have happened repeatedly.

Damaged or swollen batteries deserve particular caution. If a battery or a device has puffed up, do not puncture it, do not put it in a drawer, and take it to a collection point that handles damaged cells, telling staff what it is.

Where batteries go

Loose household batteries, the AA and AAA sort, go in the battery collection tubes found in most supermarkets and many larger shops that sell batteries. They are usually near the entrance or the tills. Household waste recycling centres take them too, and a growing number of councils run a kerbside battery collection where you put batteries in a clear bag on top of a bin rather than inside it.

Tape over the terminals of button cells and 9V batteries before you store or transport them, because those can short against each other in a jar and get hot.

Where electricals go

Waste electrical and electronic equipment, known as WEEE, is covered by a set of takeback obligations that give you free routes and that most people have never heard of.

• Like-for-like takeback. All distributors that sell electrical equipment must accept WEEE for free from customers they have supplied with an equivalent product. That covers online and mail order sellers as well as shops, so buying a new washing machine should come with a free route for the old one.
• Large retailers and small items. A retailer with more than 400 square metres of sales space must accept small WEEE, meaning items under 25cm on the longest side, free of charge from household customers, at the shop or nearby, whether or not they buy anything.
• Household waste recycling centres. Every council tip takes electricals, usually with separate containers for large appliances, small appliances, screens and fluorescent tubes.
• Kerbside small electricals collections. An increasing number of councils collect small items from the doorstep, often in a bag alongside the bins.

Material Focus runs a recycling locator listing over 30,000 drop-off points across the UK, which is the fastest way to find the nearest one for a specific type of item.

The crossed-out wheelie Bin

Look at the back or underside of almost any electrical product and you will find a small symbol of a wheeled bin with a cross through it. It is a legal marking and it means precisely what it looks like: this item must not be put in ordinary household waste at the end of its life. It is on chargers, on toys, on kitchen gadgets, and on the vape you are about to bin.

Awkward items, answered

• Vapes and pods. Never in a bin. Many vape shops and supermarkets that sell them have takeback bins. Failing that, the tip or a listed drop-off point.
• Christmas lights and light-up novelties. Electrical waste. They also tangle in sorting machinery, so they are doubly unwelcome in a recycling bin.
• Power banks and cordless tool batteries. High energy density, so treat them with respect. Drop-off point or tip, not a bin.
• Old phones and laptops. Wipe them first, then either sell, donate, or take to a WEEE point. Many charities will take working devices.
• Fridges and freezers. Contain refrigerant gases and must be handled by a licensed facility. Council bulky waste collection, retailer takeback, or the tip.
• Fluorescent tubes and low energy bulbs. Contain mercury. Tip or a retailer collection point. Standard LED and incandescent bulbs are different and usually go in general waste, but LEDs are electrical items and are better taken to a WEEE point.
• Smoke alarms. Some contain a small radioactive source. Check with your council rather than guessing, and never crush one.

The habit worth building

Keep a box. A shoebox in the cupboard under the stairs, or an old ice cream tub in the utility room, for batteries, chargers, dead gadgets and vapes. It costs nothing, it removes the moment of decision at the bin, and it means the trip to the tip or the supermarket happens once every few months instead of never.

Almost all of the 1.1 billion binned electricals ended up there because throwing something away is easy and finding the right route is a small amount of effort at the wrong moment. A box moves that effort to a moment when it does not matter.