February 2025

4 Buckden Roundabout February 2025 Safe Battery Disposal Please don ’ t bin that battery Did you know that batteries hidden in rubbish cause hundreds of fires every year? • Firefighters in Cambridgeshire have put out 33 battery related blazes since Jan 2023 • 7 bin lorries have caught fire in the Greater Cam- bridgeshire area this year • “ Dead ” batteries can “ come back to life ”, earning them the description of “ zombie batteries ” • Every year, people across the UK throw away around 22,000 tonnes of batteries and only about 1/3 are properly recycled. The others end up in general waste or with other recycling to become potential “ zombie batteries ” Batteries that find their way into our grey bins, get pretty rough treatment. They ’ re squashed, punctured, shred- ded, soaked in liquids and ultimately burned. The leaking contents of some high energy batteries can react with water to produce enough heat to ignite the hydrogen gas produced. Boom! You probably remember seeing lithium, sodium and potassium whizzing across a water tank, catching fire and exploding in chemistry lessons at school. Fires caused in this way put lives at risk; can cause millions of pounds of damage; and disrupt waste services. Remember what ’ s inside our rechargeables ! Devices like phones, laptops, tablets, power tools, remote controlled toys, lights, torches, drones, e - scooters and bikes even e - cigarettes/vapes contain potential “ zombie batteries ”. Any other reasons why I shouldn ’ t bin batteries? Batteries have a triple whammy, not only are they po- tential “ zombies ” but the metals in them can be really harmful to the environment and obtaining them in the first place, usually by mining, causes ecological damage. They are also becoming very scarce resources so need to be recycled so we can protect the environment by using them again. Up to 90% of the contents can be reused. If you can, please use rechargeables as this also reduces our use of scarce raw materials. How to dispose of your batteries and small electrical devices: • If you can do so safely, remove the batteries from broken devices and recycle the device and battery separately. • Only recycle batteries using a proper recycling ser- vice e.g. One Stop in Buckden, those found in larg- er retail stores or at the Household Waste Recy- cling Centres in St. Neots or Alconbury. • Large lead acid batteries, such as those from a car/ mobility scooter, should be taken to the House- hold Waste Recycling Centres. • If the battery cannot safely be removed, recycle the device with the battery inside using the small waste electricals recycling service at the House- hold Waste Recycling Centres. We hope to have a WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) recycling point in the village in the near future where you can dispose of such devices (and more). • If your device isn ’ t broken, please consider trading it in, selling it on or donating it to prevent items going to landfill/waste. Even if it is broken, can it be repaired/refurbished? You could bring it along to our next Repair Café at the Village Hall on Feb 8 th . If it ’ s a laptop/tablet/phone there are compa- nies which buy these up so you could look online to see whether you can get a deal to sell it. Want to know more? Visit www.takecharge.org.uk allow us to maintain the site and keep it open to the wider community. • In May we will be looking forward to our Annual Plant Sale . • In late June early July , we will be welcoming ‘ Shakespeare at the Towers ’ with evening performances of Twelfth Night in the Knot Garden. In addition to a percentage of the mon- ey generated by ticket sales we will be providing food and refreshments (including a licensed bar) before and during each performance the profits from which will all go into looking after the facilities and grounds of Buckden Towers. • Look out for other events over the Summer that we hope to organise a which can bring the local community together while also helping us maintain the grounds and facilities here at the Towers, which we keep open to the public at no cost. We are presently exploring the possibility of organising an event to celebrate the 5th November and are looking to see how we can build upon the success of the Christmas Market to see how we can make it even bigger and better than last year. Thank you for all your support. (Continued from page 8)