How to dispose of batteries in Kansas City (car, lithium, AA)

Batteries are the item people most often get wrong — because the right answer depends entirely on which kind you're holding. Some are legal in regular trash, some are worth money back, and lithium packs in a trash bag are a leading cause of garbage-truck and recycling-facility fires. Here's the whole picture for the KC metro, by battery type.

Car & lead-acid batteries: take them to an auto-parts store

This is the easy one. Auto-parts stores across the metro — AutoZone, O'Reilly, Advance, and most battery retailers — accept old car batteries free, and most will hand you a store credit for the core even if you're not buying a replacement. Lead-acid batteries are among the most recycled products in America, and retailers that sell them are set up to take them back. Never put one in trash or curbside recycling, and don't let one sit leaking on a garage floor — set it on cardboard until you make the trip.

Lithium & rechargeable batteries: never in any bin

Phone banks, cordless-tool packs, laptop batteries, vape batteries, anything that recharges: these must never go in trash OR the recycling cart. Crushed lithium cells ignite, and area waste agencies on both sides of the state line flag them as a top fire cause. The fix is easy: Call2Recycle collection boxes sit at most Home Depot, Lowe's, Staples, and Batteries Plus locations across the metro, free. Tape the terminals or bag each battery individually first. A swollen or damaged lithium battery is its own category — put it in an airtight container away from anything flammable and hand it directly to household-hazardous-waste staff rather than any drop box.

Regular alkaline AAs and AAAs: trash is legal, HHW is better

Standard alkaline batteries made since the mid-1990s contain no mercury, and Missouri's Department of Natural Resources confirms they can legally go in household trash. If you'd rather recycle them — or you've got a drawer's worth — the household hazardous waste programs on both sides of the metro accept every battery type: the MARC Solid Waste Management District program serves KC-metro Missouri residents, and Johnson County's HHW facility takes any battery from Kansas-side residents by appointment.

Button cells and hearing-aid batteries

The little coin batteries from watches, key fobs, and hearing aids often contain lithium or silver oxide — treat them like lithium: tape them to a card or bag them, and drop them at a Call2Recycle box or HHW rather than the trash. They're small enough to swallow, so store dead ones away from kids and pets in the meantime.

What we can (and can't) do on a junk pickup

Straight answer: loose batteries are on our can't-haul list — car batteries and lithium packs legally need the specialized channels above, not a junk truck. What we CAN take is everything the batteries used to power: the cordless drills, laptops, mowers (fluids drained), and the rest of the garage they're buried in. When we hit a battery pile during a cleanout, we set it aside in a labeled box and tell you exactly which drop-off it belongs to — same as we do with paint.