Disposing of old lithium ion 18650 cells

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.

Chuck them in the normal bin like everyone else does.

Bill

the battery recycling bin is obviously the place for them.

NT

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.

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.

Rubbish dump fires are really good. They reduce landfill.

Bill

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

They also chuck out some pretty unattractive smoke/fumes.

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.

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

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

Bill

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.

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.

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?

Especially since I suspect that recycling is largely energetically inefficient.

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

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.

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

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.