Recycle Your Batteries

You can make your community and the planet safer by recycling your used batteries.  Recycling batteries is easy and provides many benefits, including:

  • Preventing potentially hazardous materials from entering the waste stream
  • Protecting against fires that can be caused by trashed batteries
  • Conserving natural resources

Like other green habits, battery recycling can easily fit into your daily routine, helping you to declutter and do something good for the planet!

Here’s How It Works

The best way to ensure that batteries aren’t filling our landfills is to make sure they never get there.

FIND A DROP-OFF LOCATION TODAY!

5 Tips For Safe and Easy Battery Recycling

  1. Safety first! Be sure to safely prep your batteries. There are two options: bag or tape. Option A: Bag each battery in its own clear plastic bag before placing it in a storage container. Option B: you can tape the terminals with clear packing, non-conductive electrical or duct tape, keeping label visible.
  2. Stay cool. Store the batteries in a cool, dry place. Incidents can occur when batteries (or the devices they power such as a cellphone or tablet) are exposed to inclement or excessively hot weather. Store them in a plastic container; avoid metal.
  3. Possible damage? If you see a swollen or bulging battery, immediately put it in a non-flammable material such as sand or kitty litter in a cool, dry place. DO NOT THROW AWAY. Contact Call2Recycle customer service at 1-877-723-1297, the manufacturer or retailer immediately for instructions, especially if the label says it is Lithium or Lithium-Ion.
  4. Timing is everything. Aim to drop batteries to recycle within six months, ensuring they are bagged or taped. You can use our locator to find the nearest drop-off site.
  5. Spread the word. As we all use batteries to power our world, share the knowledge about battery recycling. It’s the right thing to do and helps keep batteries out of landfills!

Got Single Use?

For single-use batteries, like AA, AAA, 9v, etc., you can drop them off at select Call2Recycle participating locations, contact your local community recycling center for other options or buy your own Call2Recycle recycling box for your home or office.

Consumer FAQ

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Who is Call2Recycle®?

We are the country’s largest consumer battery stewardship and recycling program, with a network of thousands of public collection sites. We were founded in the mid-1990s as a voluntary, industry-run initiative to keep the heavy metals from rechargeable batteries out of the solid waste stream.

How are you funded?

Industry stewards, or major product and battery manufacturers across the globe, voluntarily fund our programs to ensure that the batteries and cellphones that they introduce into the marketplace are being responsibly recycled when they reach their end of life.

What is product stewardship?

Product stewardship is the act of minimizing the health, safety, environmental, and social impact of a product and its packaging throughout its lifecycle. While product manufacturers or producer have the greatest ability to influence this impact, suppliers, retailers, regulators and consumers also play significant roles.

What kind of cellphones do you recycle?

We accept all cellphones, with or without their batteries.

What do you do with the batteries and cellphones I drop off?

All our collected batteries are sent to sorters and processors in the U.S. and Canada. These companies sort the batteries by chemistry, and then converted into byproducts that are used to make new products such as batteries, stainless steel alloy and cement additives. Cellphones are refurbished and resold when possible, or recycled, with the proceeds being used to fund the program. You can see how we recycle batteries in this video.

Is it free to recycle or is there a charge to recycle?

Consumers are invited to take advantage of our drop-off collection network at no cost.  Businesses are invited to utilize our online store to purchase collection kits.