Can you throw away batteries?

What each state's own agency says about batteries: the page it was read from, the date it was read, and where that state takes it.

The federal baseline

EPA splits the answer by chemistry: "In most communities, alkaline and zinc carbon batteries can be safely put in your household trash." Everything else it treats differently — "Do not put button-cell, coin, or lithium single use batteries in the trash or municipal recycling bins" and "Do not put rechargeable batteries in the trash or municipal recycling bins." Federal law here is Public Law 104-142, the Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act, which "was enacted to phase out the use of mercury-containing batteries and provide for the recycling of nickel cadmium, small sealed lead-acid batteries, and certain other rechargeable batteries." EPA notes that some states have gone further with their own battery recycling laws, so your state's rule is the one that binds you.

Read from EPA.

What happens to it

1. Tape the terminals with non-conductive tape, or bag each battery separately, so the ends cannot touch metal or each other.
2. Take them to a specialized battery recycler, a retailer that provides battery takeback, or a household hazardous waste collection program.
3. Devices whose batteries do not come out go whole to a certified electronics recycler or an electronics takeback program.
4. Recyclers sort batteries by chemistry — the type is identified by the battery's marking and labeling, not by its shape or the color of its label.
5. Recycling recovers metals such as mercury, lead, cadmium, nickel and silver, plus critical minerals including cobalt, lithium and graphite.

Steps read from US EPA.

All 50 states

One row per state, with the sentence its agency page states, the page itself, the date it was read, and where that state says to take it. A state whose name links has a page of its own; for the rest, this row is everything that state says.