How Do You Dispose of Batteries?

It depends on the battery. The EPA says that in most communities alkaline and zinc carbon batteries can be safely put in household trash, but its recommendation is to send used alkaline and zinc carbon batteries to battery recyclers or check with your local or state solid waste authority. It says removable rechargeable batteries can be brought to specialized battery recyclers, participating retailers that provide battery takeback services, or local household hazardous waste collection programs, and that lead-acid batteries should be returned to a battery retailer or local household hazardous waste collection program and not put in the trash or municipal recycling bins.

Lithium-ion batteries are a fire risk. The EPA says that to prevent fires from lithium-ion batteries, you should tape battery terminals or place batteries in separate plastic bags, and never put these batteries in household garbage or recycling bins. An EPA report found 64 waste facilities that had experienced 245 fires caused by, or likely caused by, lithium metal or lithium-ion batteries, at locations including materials recovery facilities, garbage trucks and other vehicles, landfills and transfer stations.

The EPA says federal regulations identify five categories of materials that can be managed as universal wastes, which are batteries, pesticides, mercury-containing equipment, lamps and aerosol cans. State laws are also adding producer-funded collection. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection says Public Act 25-34, signed into law on June 10, 2025, requires battery producers to fund and operate a program providing convenient, free collection and recycling of covered portable and medium-format batteries, including damaged or defective batteries, with the program beginning in 2027.