This guide focuses on how to dispose of batteries. Your batteries will be recycled safely if you bring them to your home household hazardous waste (HHW) facility or a shop that accepts batteries for recycling. Lithium-based, disposable batteries should also be wrapped in electrical tape and brought to an HHW facility or a store to safely recycle. These stores do not have a recycle location locator, but all stores accept rechargeable batteries as well as any Lithium single-use batteries, including coins, for recycling.
Unfortunately, you cannot put either single-use or rechargeable batteries into the recycling bin to be collected. Home or office improvement stores will generally accept batteries for recycling, hosting drop boxes with organizations such as Call2Recycle. There are plenty of places throughout the US to recycle your rechargeable batteries, including a lot of hardware stores. Generally, you can recycle these harder-to-recycle items, such as electronics, at a hazardous waste site, county recycles center, or a community hazardous waste pickup.
Some reclamation companies do recycle those batteries; check with your local or state solid waste authority about disposal options. Alkaline and Zinc Carbon batteries may be placed in your normal garbage unless local recycling options are available. Alkaline batteries may be placed in the trash, but others should be recycled or handled as general waste. If storing batteries for recycling, you can reduce the fire risk by covering the ends of batteries with clear packing tape, or placing each battery into an individual plastic bag, then placing the batteries into a leakproof, non-metal container with a cover, like a plastic bucket.
Once you have wrapped batteries, keep them in the container until you can bring them to your retail recycler or to an HHW facility. To prevent lithium-ion batteries from burning, tape the terminals of the batteries, and/or put the batteries into individual plastic bags, and never place those batteries in the trash or your home recycling container. For example, when lithium-ion batteries are recycled, the lithium may be converted to lithium carbonate, a material used for making aluminum foil. Both Republic and Waste Management, large trash haulers, also offer nationwide curbside recycling of many types of batteries.
Car batteries and other lead-acid batteries are easy to recycle. Small sealed lead-acid batteries can be recycled at many participating retail drop-off locations, including most Radio Shack stores and Walmart. Used lithium-ion batteries can be brought to specialty battery recyclers, participating retailers offering battery recycling services, or your local household hazardous waste collection program.
Check with your local municipal government, trash hauler, and your local solid waste district to find out whether your local municipal government accepts single-use batteries for recycling, or accepts batteries on household hazardous waste collection days.
