(CGN 12) BATTERIES

Batteries are one of the smallest items we throw away, and potentially one of the most dangerous.

For years, waste batteries were treated as little more than an inconvenience: a few AA cells in a drawer, an old mobile phone battery, a disposable vape tossed into a bin. Today, however, batteries sit at the centre of one of the fastest-growing safety and compliance challenges facing the waste and recycling sector.


From fires in refuse vehicles and recycling plants, to exploding vapes and damaged lithium-ion batteries entering general waste streams, the risks are becoming very real, very costly and increasingly difficult to ignore.


CGN 12 – Batteries - has been created to provide practical, straightforward guidance on:

• the main battery types,
• what legally constitutes a waste battery,
• why lithium batteries are different,
• safe storage and segregation,
• transport considerations,
• why simple actions like taping battery terminals genuinely matter.

As with all Circular Guidance Notes, this document is designed to be useful rather than overcomplicated - focusing on practical handling, safety, compliance and common sense rather than technical jargon because in waste management, one incorrectly discarded battery doesn’t just disappear into a bin, sometimes, it starts a fire.

I hope you find this CGN useful. CGN 11 - link - more like this - (EU) - link - more like this (batteries) - link - more like this (the waste files) - link

CGN Disclaimer & Community Review

As with all documents within the CGN (Circular Guidance Note) series, every effort has been made to ensure the information provided is factual, practical, and helpful at the time of writing however, legislation changes, guidance evolves and occasionally mistakes happen. If you spot anything within this CGN that is incorrect, misleading, outdated or could be better explained, please leave a comment below together with supporting information or clarification. Following review and verification, corrections or revisions will be made where appropriate and contributors will happily be credited for their input should they wish. The aim of the CGN series is not simply to publish information but to build a growing, reliable, real-world resource library for everyone involved in waste, recycling, compliance and circular economy discussions.

I have always believed that in waste management, getting it right matters more than pretending to already know everything.