Aberdeenshire Council is pleading with residents to properly dispose of batteries to avoid the “catastrophic” risk of fire.
The appeal comes after recent nationwide research highlighted the dangers of not disposing of old batteries correctly.
New YouGov research suggests that only 43% of the public realise that, if damaged, lithium-ion batteries can spark fires.
For several years, Aberdeenshire Council has been encouraging residents to pop their redundant batteries into freely-available recycling bags.
These can then be left out on top of either their recycling or waste bin lid for routine collection, or taken to a recycling centre.
The local authority’s waste manager, Ros Baxter, said: “Most households will use equipment powered by batteries in some form or another, but lithium-ion batteries can become damaged during transit or simply by handling them.
“The potential risk of fire should never be underestimated as when they are in such close proximity to flammable material, such as paper and plastics, the results can be catastrophic.
“I would encourage everyone to use the pink battery recycling bags we provide completely free of charge to ensure they are disposed of safely.”
Batteries collected include AA, AAA, Sizes C, Size D, Button, Square, mobile phone batteries and laptop batteries.
Vehicle batteries and leisure batteries from equipment such as caravans are not suitable and should be taken to a recycling centre.
Customers can collect the bags at libraries, service points or recycling centres.
