I had a problem the other day. I realized that the battery on my cell phone was swelling. That’s not a good sign. Easy enough to notice, as suddenly the back of my cell phone was popping open constantly. So I bought a new cell phone battery, and all appears to be well. Except I’ve got this battery I know you aren’t supposed to throw in the trash, although most people do. So I decided to look up how to recycle cell phone batteries.

It’s really easy to find a place to recycle them, although not everyone will have a place that’s close. Many office stores take them. Same for many Radio Shack locations. But if you’re in doubt, sites such as Call2Recycle and 1-800-Recycling make this really easy. All I had to do was hand the battery over at the front counter.

This works for many kinds of electronic waste, in fact, not just batteries. Some electronics have a fee associated with their recycling, but other items are free to recycle. I know paying to do the right thing with old electronics isn’t much fun, but it’s important. Most electronics really don’t belong in the trash. In fact, a recycling fee may be collected in California at the time of sale of certain monitors, rather than at the time of recycling.