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Batteries: Hidden Household Hazards

Batteries are hidden household hazards. Various batteries are on a chalkboard.

Batteries are commonplace items in our households; however, it is inappropriate to dispose of batteries in your garbage or recycling cart the same way you would other household waste. Throwing away batteries in your garbage or recycling cart can pose a serious threat to both human health and safety as well as the environment. Batteries contain dangerous chemicals and heavy metals that can cause injury or fires and therefore must be disposed of properly.

When batteries are improperly disposed of, they can leak and cause toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, nickel and mercury to contaminate soil and water bodies, such as our local creeks and the San Francisco Bay. This environmental pollution poses threats to plants, animals and people, and is difficult and costly to remedy.

Batteries also pose a very real fire hazard, particularly lithium-ion batteries commonly found in vapes, phones, wireless ear buds and laptops. Batteries can sustain structural damage which causes them to spark and catch fire when collected in garbage trucks or delivered to recycling sorting facilities. Battery fires are hotter and more difficult to put out than normal fires. These fires can release toxic chemicals into the air, and pose extra dangerous working conditions for garbage workers, recycling sorting facilities, and the local community.

Batteries are legally classified as “household hazardous waste” or “HHW”, and should never be placed in your garbage or recycling cart for disposal. Instead, household batteries must be taken to proper collection locations for batteries or HHW.

Residents of West Contra Costa have free access to the HHW facilities and the battery boxes at the following locations:

More information can be found on the RecycleMore website.

Batteries are an everyday household item; however, they cannot be disposed of with other household trash. Batteries pose environmental and human health and safety hazards when disposed of incorrectly and can cause dangerous fires when placed in garbage or recycling carts. Luckily, there are convenient and easy options for residents of West Contra Costa County to safely dispose of used and unwanted batteries, including dropping them off at the Household Hazardous Waste facilities or in a battery box located in many libraries, City Halls, and hardware stores in the area.

Please help us protect our West Contra Costa community and environment and the employees working hard collecting and processing our waste.

To learn more, please visit the page on the RecycleMore website.