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Is it safe to throw ordinary alkaline batteries in the trash?

Previously I was told to recycle alkaline batteries (ie duracell, energizer etc) but now the places that take batteries will only take rechargeables like NiCads and Li-ions. So, is it safe to just throw away standard DuraCell batteries? What is in them that is toxic?

It’s safe to dispose of alkaline batteries in your normal household trash. There’s nothing toxic in them. US federal regulations don’t require any special handling.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 at 11:37 am and is filed under alkaline. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Is it safe to throw ordinary alkaline batteries in the trash?”

  1. Yeah, no one takes them anymore (too bad). It is safe to throw out alkaline batteries. At one point they were being recycled but I guess it proved too costly. The good news is batteries no longer contain mercury so at least they won’t be polluting forever.
    References :

  2. It’s safe to dispose of alkaline batteries in your normal household trash. There’s nothing toxic in them. US federal regulations don’t require any special handling.
    References :

  3. We take a coffee can full of batteries to Radioshack every couple of months.

    Lots of places will recycle the batteries for free. Radioshack is convenient for us. Plus we get to wander around in the store. [we always buy something for fun] ;)
    References :
    our friendly RadioShack

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