What happens to a battery once we throw it away?

Most of us don’t know, and honestly, we rarely think about it. It’s small, it’s out of sight, and we’re busy.

But here’s the truth: the heavy metals and chemicals inside batteries don’t disappear when we toss them in the bin. When they end up in landfills, they leak into soil and water, poisoning ecosystems, harming wildlife, and eventually affecting our own health.

And that’s not the only problem. When we fail to recycle batteries, we waste valuable minerals that could be reused. Instead, more mining is required - often in poorer communities where workers face dangerous conditions, and where children are sometimes involved in extraction. A battery thrown away here can contribute to harm happening far away.

Battery recycling is an issue many people overlook, simply because the consequences aren’t always immediate or visible. But the risks are real. Batteries thrown into general waste can spark fires when compacted or damaged, putting people - including us - at risk.

The reality is that most of the time, we’re either unaware of the harm improper disposal causes, or we just don’t know where to take our used batteries. That’s exactly why Margot and I chose our CAS project: our goal is to raise awareness and make battery recycling easier and more accessible so that more of us actually do it.

For now, we’re using the newly emptied battery bins outside the dining hall, in the science centre and in the PAC. After the break, we hope to expand this by installing battery bins in all the boarding houses and in key places around school, including the SEC and the library.

We also want to collect data to track how much battery recycling improves over time. So we are encouraging all Sevenoaks students to recycle their batteries at school. Our team put up posters around the school, as well as in every boarding house, to encourage action.

It's easy to doubt how much difference one battery will make, and it's easy to think our actions are inconsequential, but small actions from each of us can have a huge positive impact.