Household, Alkaline, Lithium, and Additional

Whether or not or not you’ll have single-use alkaline batteries, rechargeable batteries, or another sort of ineffective battery laying spherical your individual residence, chances are high you may be questioning strategies to recycle household batteries. Fortuitously, when it comes to recycling batteries, there are infinite selections.

Study on for our info to household battery recycling all through the U.S., regardless of the place you reside.

Nearly all varieties of batteries are recyclable. Whereas most municipalities do not accept them in curbside recycling, there are fairly just a few retailers and packages all through the U.S. — a lot of which might be big-box retailers which may be found shut to just about any metropolis — the place you’ll drop off batteries to be recycled.

If in case you could have a drawer full of ineffective batteries that you simply simply’d favor to recycle, we advise utilizing Earth911’s The place to Recycle instrument. There, you’ll enter what merchandise you’d favor to recycle (merely search “batteries” or the exact type of battery you’ll have) and your zip code. Earth911 will pull up a listing of areas in your house with battery recycling bins.

Most of these areas will perhaps be retailers, nevertheless completely different selections would possibly embrace recycling services, safe drop-off events held by your municipality, or mail-in packages.

One different helpful useful resource for finding native battery recycling drop-off elements is Call2Recycle, an organization that has better than 25,000 drop-off web sites in North America. It’s possible you’ll seek for Call2Recycle’s drop-off areas on its website online, and you possibly can discover the group’s bins in a lot of chain retailers — additional on that beneath.

Sooner than you head to a retailer or event, it could presumably’t injury to call ahead to substantiate their hours and that they are nonetheless working their battery recycling program.

The subsequent big-box retailers normally have battery recycling bins, which suggests you’ll stop by and drop your batteries off to be recycled. Outlets with these packages embrace:

Staples Battery Recycling

Staples retailers accept the following kinds of batteries for recycling:

• Lithium ion (Li-Ion)
• Nickel metallic hydride (Ni-MH)
• Nickel zinc (Ni-ZN)
• Non-rechargeable lithium NEW
• Rechargeable nickel cadmium (Ni-Cd)
• Single-use alkaline NEW
• Small sealed lead acid (SSLA/Pb).

This recycling program is in all Staples retailers, other than the “metropolis retailers” in New York Metropolis and Washington, D.C. And must you usher in outdated batteries, Staples will give you a coupon in change.

Staples beforehand did not accept single-use alkaline batteries for recycling, nevertheless in March 2024, the company expanded its free in-store recycling program to include single-use alkaline and non-rechargeable lithium batteries.

Lowe’s Battery Recycling

Lowe’s might be partnered with Call2Recycle, and has bins at better than 1,700 Lowe’s retailers and distribution services the place you’ll drop off rechargeable batteries.

RadioShack Battery Recycling

Various RadioShack areas recycle all household batteries (along with single-use alkaline batteries!) by means of Call2Recycle — you possibly can discover collaborating areas proper right here.

Batteries Plus Battery Recycling

Batteries Plus retailers, which might be positioned all all through the U.S., have an intensive battery recycling program, which includes single-use alkaline batteries.

Additional significantly, you’ll convey throughout the following sorts of batteries:

• Lead Acid
• Nickel Cadmium
• Nickel Metal Hydride
• Lithium Ion & Polymer
• Household
• Specialty.

If these batteries are rechargeable, why do they need to be recycled the least bit? Sadly, rechargeable batteries solely closing a variety of years sooner than they die and needs to be modified. Nevertheless nonetheless, rechargeable batteries are a additional sustainable selection than single-use batteries.

Rechargeable batteries typically value additional upfront than single-use batteries — to not level out, you’ll should purchase a battery charger, too. Nevertheless the good news is, as quickly as you make the most of the batteries a variety of events, you may make up the upfront value and hopefully decrease your bills in the long run.

Since they’re reusable, rechargeable batteries are normal a far more eco-friendly and cost-effective varied to single-use batteries. Not solely that, nevertheless as quickly as they die, they’re less complicated to recycle than single-use alkaline batteries.

It is illegal in California to throw single-use alkaline batteries throughout the trash; and in New York Metropolis, it’s illegal to throw rechargeable batteries of any selection throughout the trash.

Nevertheless just because it’s technically approved to ship batteries to landfill in a lot of areas doesn’t suggest we must always at all times. Whereas battery disposal is a controversial matter, there’s proof that batteries can leach toxic chemical substances and air pollution into groundwater from the landfill, and that they may even overheat and start a fire throughout the trash, in accordance with Shopper Research.

Principally, batteries are extraordinarily recyclable — and there are fairly just a few drop-off elements all through the nation — so for many people, there’s truly no excuse to not recycle batteries.

This textual content, initially printed on May 1, 2020, has been updated.