When your telly remote control claps out, what do you do with the old batteries? What about the spent batteries from children’s toys, your doorbell or your bike lights?

Irish homes hold on to far too many old batteries. Indeed, only half of all batteries sold in Ireland are making their way back for recycling each year, new data shows.

Our homes harbour many different types of used batteries, such as lithium batteries from laptops, cameras and phones, and alkaline batteries used in TV remotes, torches and alarm clocks.

When left to languish on shelves and in drawers, many of us forget if these batteries are spent or not, so we hang on them just in case.

Or maybe you started an old battery collection box ten years ago, it’s half full of definitely-dead batteries, but you haven’t got round to bringing it to a recycling point yet.

Unfortunately, we keep some old batteries in our homes for too long. Others are going in our household waste and this isn’t good.

Batteries are classified as hazardous waste and require special handling. Crushed in bin lorries or recycling centres, they can spark or explode, especially lithium-ion batteries found in phones, vapes and power tools.

These sparks can cause serious fires in bin trucks and waste facilities, endangering workers and causing major damage. So never dispose of batteries in your black, brown or green bin.

Even small button batteries can cause fires and environmental damage when disposed of in your household waste.

Storage of old batteries for long periods of time in your home should be avoided too, says not-for-profit Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Ireland. If damaged, waste lithium batteries can produce excessive heat and release flammable vapours and gases, catch fire or explode, causing injury or damage.

A soapy smell, hissing, swelling, heating and smoking from old batteries are all signs of danger.

So if you have a stash of waste batteries piling up at home, take it to your nearest collection point sooner rather than later.

To support a nationwide New Year clear-out, WEEE Ireland is delivering one million blue battery recycling boxes to homes this month to capture the valuable hoard of waste batteries.

Almost half of household battery purchases are made during the Christmas shopping period, according to figures from WEEE Ireland, so the timing is opportune.

If you are making space for new toys and devices, take the batteries out of the old ones and bring them for recycling.

Ireland’s recycling rate for electronic toys such as gaming consoles, e-scooters and battery-operated action figures is just 10 per cent, leaving millions of unused, broken or obsolete toys gathering dust in homes or discarded incorrectly. So, bring those for recycling while you’re at it.

Every one of the free blue boxes has a handy QR code that connects you to a map of hundreds of local drop-off points for batteries and old electrical items.

Most supermarkets, pharmacies and electrical shops provide free battery recycling bins.

Civic-amenity sites accept a wide range of batteries too, including car and rechargeable batteries.

Recycling batteries is free, safe and it protects the environment, says Minister of State at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, Alan Dillon. If we work together, we can keep dangerous chemicals out of landfill and rare materials in circulation, he says.

You’ll find a network of WEEE Ireland’s free collection points across local authority civic-amenity centres and retailers at weeeireland.ie.