Following up from your post a little bit back, our local paper "the Central Coast Express Advocate" ran this article today (19/10/2011) regarding Gosford council. The article is as follows:
"Residents can recycle compact fluorescent lamps and household batteries at Gosford Council landfills.
Until next august residents can drop fluorescent tubes, bulbs, HID, non-mercury lamps, and alkaline, rechargeable batteries at Woy Woy and Kincumber landfills, free.
The lights are recycled and components such as glass, aluminium, phosphor powder and mercury are reused by the glass, steel, dental and insulation and in agriculture industries in new products.
Household batteries - such as alkaline or rechargeable batteries - contain valuable products such as steel, zinc, manganese, cadmium, ferro-nickel alloys and ferro-cobalt alloys.
These are recycled and reused in such new products as light posts, steel alloys, and batteries.
This program will help provide environmentally responsible disposal options for fluorescent lights and batteries by conserving valuable resources.
The recycling program will run for a trial period until August, at which time the success of the program will be evaluated."
I think the recycling will be carried out by a contractor using the council as a collection point only, as our council can't fix a pothole in the road properly, let alone recycle heavy metals.
It's possible that this service will spread to other council areas as time goes by.