Batteries are now the fourth "never bin" item in Waste Management's Recycle Right® program, backed by an industry estimate of 5,000 battery related fires a year at U.S. recycling facilities and a coming surge in lithium ion devices.
A lithium-ion cell doesn't need to be crushed to ignite. Residual charge, a sharp bend, the right amount of heat from a compactor ram, and the cell vents. The electrolyte catches. Nearby paper, plastic, or cardboard becomes fuel. A spark in a curbside bin becomes a structure fire in a materials recovery facility within minutes, and the industry's own estimate puts the count at roughly 5,000 such fires a year at U.S. recycling plants, or about 13 a day.
That estimate comes from a study cited by the National Waste & Recycling Association via Waste Management's June 15 announcement, and it is the number Waste Management used to justify adding batteries as the fourth "never bin" item in its Recycle Right® program, alongside bagged recyclables, tanglers like cords and hoses, and food- or liquid-soiled paper. The previous three rules asked consumers to change habits that mostly live inside the kitchen or the garage. The fourth asks them to stop treating every small device with a battery inside as ordinary household trash, which is the part households have consistently failed to do.
The mechanism is different from a soda can. Alkaline cells, the AA, AAA, and 9-volt kind that still ship in remotes, clocks, toys, and flashlights, carry enough residual charge to arc when a sorting line shreds them or a truck compactor pinches the casing. Lithium-ion cells, which now power shavers, electric toothbrushes, smart speakers, cordless power tools, e-bikes, e-scooters, Bluetooth trackers, and musical greeting cards, are denser and less forgiving. The cell can sit in a bin for weeks looking inert, then ignite under compression hours after collection. Sorting facilities use optical scanners, magnets, and eddy currents to pull out metals, glass, paper, and rigid plastics. None of those tools can see a button cell lodged in a junk drawer of a curbside bin.
The reader-side answer is straightforward once the type is identified. Single-use alkaline batteries can usually be taped over the terminals, a strip of clear packing tape across both ends is enough, and taken to a household hazardous waste collection site or a participating drop-off point. Rechargeable lithium-ion packs belong at the same networks or at retailer take-back counters; many home improvement and electronics stores accept small packs in store, and e-bike and e-scooter dealers are required in several states to take the larger ones. Button cells, the coin-sized batteries that still ship in watches, hearing aids, and some greeting cards, are the most toxic per gram and should never go in a household bin; many pharmacies will take them. A swollen, leaking, or damaged lithium-ion pack is a different problem: leave it in a non-metal container of sand or kitty litter, do not put it in the trash, and call the local fire non-emergency line or a hazardous-waste hauler for pickup instructions.
The harder question is what the rule is supposed to fix, because the consumer-facing piece is only one of three pieces, and it is the one the industry has been pushing hardest for twenty years. Curbside programs in most U.S. cities and counties still cannot accept batteries of any chemistry, and the material recovery facilities downstream are configured to sort commingled containers and paper, not to triage hazardous streams. Drop-off density is uneven, with rural counties often 30 miles or more from the nearest participating site. Retailer take-back ranges from generous to nonexistent across chains and product categories, and the rules vary by state. The "I didn't know I wasn't supposed to put that in the bin" reaction, which Waste Management explicitly anticipates in its messaging, is rational given the gap between what households are told to do and what infrastructure exists to receive what they are told to hand off.
The fire count is also a snapshot of a flow that is about to get bigger. Lithium-ion battery demand is projected to grow several-fold by 2030, driven by electric vehicles, stationary storage, micromobility, and the slow churn of small consumer devices. E-bike and e-scooter sales in the U.S. have grown sharply in the past three years, and the batteries that power them are far larger than the cells inside any consumer electronic. The collection systems designed for the alkaline era, which were built around button cells and cordless tool packs, were not sized for that. The 5,000-fires-a-year estimate in the Waste Management release is, in effect, a baseline.
What changes that baseline is not a fourth household rule. It is whether the people who sell the devices, the municipalities that run the collection contracts, and the retailers who already take trade-ins can be lined up behind a denser, more uniform drop-off and take-back network, with the haulers and material recovery facilities funded to handle the lithium-ion stream before it arrives rather than after it sparks. Until that alignment lands, the rule will keep being true and households will keep breaking it, not out of carelessness but because the bin they were told not to use is the only one in front of them.