A dead lithium-ion battery is not safe in the trash or the blue bin

A battery that cannot run a device can still retain enough energy to injure someone or start a fire. "Flat" describes its usefulness to you, not its stored energy or its chemical state.

Mechanical damage is the trigger. Crushing or puncturing shorts the cell internally, heat builds faster than it escapes, and the cell enters thermal runaway - a self-sustaining reaction that neighbouring cells can propagate.

Waste collection is, mechanically, a crushing process. That is the whole problem.

EPA's 2026 report to Congress on battery collection identifies risk during transport, at landfills and at materials-recovery facilities.

None of those are places where a fire is easy to contain. A MRF is a building full of shredded paper and film plastic, moving on conveyors, with people standing beside them.

Tape exposed terminals with non-conductive tape, or put each battery in its own plastic bag. This prevents terminal-to-terminal contact in a container of mixed batteries.

Then use a battery drop-off point or a household-hazardous-waste program that accepts that battery type. The type qualifier matters - acceptance is not universal.

For swollen, leaking or damaged batteries, do not improvise. Contact the manufacturer or the local hazardous-waste program and ask.

Keeping lithium batteries out of trash and curbside recycling can reduce preventable waste-facility fires and improve safe recovery of valuable battery materials.

Separate collection protects workers and facilities first, and improves material recovery second. Both are worth having, in that order.

There is no universal drop-off rule. Programs differ on loose cells, embedded batteries, e-bike packs and damaged units.

So the practical instruction is not "take it to the drop-off" - it is "check what your accepting program takes, then take it there." The rule that works everywhere is the negative one: not the trash, not the blue bin.