Disposing of old lithium ion 18650 cells

[Caecilius]

I need to dispose of a ten-year old laptop battery, which is no longer needed as the laptop was decommissioned a couple of years ago.

I've opened the battery case up, and it contains 9 x 18650 lithium ion cells connected in series/parallel. Each parallel-connected set of cells is giving an open-circuit voltage of about 2.8v.

The cells are beyond use, as they're below the minimum safe voltage. So how best to dispose of them?

I'm considering either discharging them fully through a resistor to remove any remaining energy, or wraping them with tape to prevent accidental short circuit; then tossing them.

I guess they should go in the black-sack rubbish, as I don't think they're recyclable. There's a battery recycling bin in my local supermarket, but suspect that a bunch of LiIon cells would confuse the hell out of whoever sorts through these.

Any thoughts? Am I over thinking this?

[Chris Hogg]

Yes. Just put it in the battery recycling bin and let them take care of it. They will see all sorts of batteries and recognise them for what they are and deal with them appropriately.

[Bill Wright]

Chuck them in the normal bin like everyone else does.

Bill

[tabbypurr]

the battery recycling bin is obviously the place for them.

NT

[Michael Chare]

Where I am in Wales the council refuse collection provide special bags for putting batteries in. I left one or two batteries in the bags for months before they were eventually taken.

[Graham Harrison]

I live not far from a rubbish dump which recently caught fire (took 2 days to extinguish). They don't know what started it but their "best guess" is batteries that had been put in the black bag instead of being put in battery recycling.

[Bill Wright]

Rubbish dump fires are really good. They reduce landfill.

Bill

[Brian Gaff]

Actually a while ago a fire ata local recycling centre was eventually tracked down to such cells going internal short and setting the rest of the pile of rubbish alight. I guess the best bet is to do whatever your council suggests, here all batteries have to be tied in a plastic, non bio degradable bag and left on top of the tin glass and plastic recycle bin.

I have no idea what becomes of them of course, but at least that is their problem not ours! Brian

[Graham Harrison]

They also chuck out some pretty unattractive smoke/fumes.

[Max Demian]

All shops that sell a significant number of batteries have to provide a recycling bin. I think the only common kinds you can't put in there are car or motorcycle batteries.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Car batteries have a scrap value so are recycled. Take them to your local scrap yard.

[Bill Wright]

Nah! Good for the chest! When I see a big black fire I stand near it and take deep breaths.

Bill

[pamela]

We don't get such battery bags at all, so I throw all my batteries in the usual bin.

Those 18650 cells may be another matter but surely there's not much risk of a AA alkaline or a button cell catching fire? Especially if they are too weak to use.

[PeterC]

We can put them in any strong, transparent bag and put them with the blue (recycling) bin, usually tied to the handle. I use a bag that's long enough, tie a knot in it and just close the bin's lid below the knot. It goes near the handle so that it's obvious - save the bindroids having to untie the bag.

[pamela]

Life's too short to add another ritual to my day.

How much difference does it really make if half a dozen AA cells go in the main rubbish - even if thousands of people are doing it?

[Huge]

Especially since I suspect that recycling is largely energetically inefficient.

[Malcolm Race]

There is an article in todays ST quoting statistics saying that firefighters are vtree thines more likely to suffer cancer than the general population because of the toxic materials which they breathe in or transfer to their skin from their uniforms

[Chris Hogg]

In the chemistry department at uni there was a fireproof suit for a member of staff to wear in case of a local emergency (I only ever saw it worn once, when an overheated oil bath caught fire and had to be dealt with). It was made of asbestos.

[Graham Harrison]

If experience with our recent fire locally is anything to go by I'm not sure "they" really know. That said, down here in Somerset we're being encouraged NOT to put batteries in our general waste becuse "they" believe that there is a risk.

The airline industry has become very wary of certain types of battery since Boeing had some (used by the aircraft) catch fire on brand new

787s. Most airlines now carry specialised equipment in the cabin in case laptop batteries catch fire and there are new rules about bulk shipments in cargo holds (that's the hold of passenger planes, not just all freight aircraft).

[pamela]

Laptops often use relatively powerful lithion ion rechargeable batteries and there have been fires with some models.

On the other hand, I was thinking of domestic alkaline cells (AA, AAA, etc) or (silver/alkaline/lithium) button cells. There may be some case for disposing of these separately but I wonder how strong it is and whether fire safety has anything to do with it.