Acid and a wooden floor
A car battery on its side will leak. The leak eats the floor and becomes a spill you must not hose into the lot. Stand vehicle batteries upright in a plastic crate, strap the crate, and keep it at the door so you can take it off first. Call the site or the battery recycler and ask where vehicle batteries go. Many disposal floors do not want them in the household trash pile. Ask. Do not bury a battery under bags to save a stop. If you are also hauling ordinary junk, the battery is still its own item. Dumpmapper can help you find a disposal site for the legal debris. It does not replace the battery instruction. Terminals should be protected the way the recycler asks, not taped at random if they told you a different method.
Lithium packs do not go under the load
Tool packs, phone batteries, and other lithium batteries should not be crushed under furniture. A crushed cell is a fire problem in a hot box and at the site. Tape the terminals if the program asks you to, and take them to the battery or hazardous-waste stream, not the trash floor. Do not toss them in a sack with screws and scrap metal. If a pack is swollen, dented, or hot, do not load it. Ask the program what they want you to do. Do not puncture it to let it die, and do not leave it in the rental overnight. The same sorting pass should pull gasoline, solvents, and pool chemicals for household hazardous waste. Do not dump, burn, or evaporate those either.
If one has already leaked
Stop loading. Do not spread the acid with a wet broom. Absorb and bag what the hazardous-waste program tells you to bag, and tell the rental counter what the liquid was. Do not hose the floor into a storm drain or the street. Do not sprinkle a random chemical on the stain and rinse it through the plywood. Upright the battery if you can do it without getting acid on your hands, gloves on, and set it in a crate that can hold a drip. At the site, do not kick the battery onto the trash floor because you are tired of carrying it. Ask the attendant. If they cannot take it, it leaves with you, upright, until the recycler can.
Before you go
- Ask where vehicle batteries and lithium packs are accepted.
- Haul vehicle batteries upright in a crate, not under trash bags.
- Do not crush lithium packs or bury them in the load.
- If acid leaks, absorb it and tell the counter. Do not hose it off.
Laying a car battery on its side under bags so the box looks like ordinary junk.
Questions people ask
Can I put a battery in the cab to keep it safe?
The cab is part of the rental. A battery there can still leak on the mat. Use the upright, secured method the recycler described, and check the footwell before you return the truck. Out of the cargo pile is not the same thing as a legal disposal.
Are alkaline household batteries the same as a car battery?
No. A car battery is a heavy lead-acid unit that leaks if it tips. Small household batteries are a different stream. Ask the program which bin is which. Do not mix them into one bag and hope the trash floor sorts it out.
Search Dumpmapper by ZIP code or city, then call the site before you load the truck. Hours and accepted materials change.