Guide for Reuse, Repair, Recycling, and Safe Disposal
for Alameda County, Contra Costa County, and the City of Palo Alto

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Batteries - Household - Single-Use

Primary/Single-Use batteries cannot be recharged and must be disposed of once they wear out. Alkaline, lithium, silver oxide, zinc-air, zinc-carbon, and zinc-chloride are all types of primary batteries.

Household Hazardous Waste

This item should never be put in a curbside bin. For more information visit our household hazardous waste page.

Find more information on our Battery Fact Sheet.

Vendors

Vendor Address City Destination Disposal Method Notes
Charity Cultural Services Center 731 Commercial St. San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Cirba Solutions (Mark Steadman) Recycle Mail-in for a Fee Sells We Recycle Kits to collect and mail back batteries.
City of Alameda Maintenance Services Center 1616 Fortmann Way Alameda Recycle Free Drop-off (Tape the contacts on both ends before dropping off)
City of Palo Alto Household Hazardous Waste Station Program 2501 Embarcadero Way Palo Alto Recycle Free Drop-off Only 15 gallons or 125 pounds of hazardous waste per visit. Must be a Palo Alto resident, proof of residency is required.
Clean Earth (AERC) (Hayward) 30677 Huntwood Ave Hayward Recycle Mail-in for a Fee Mail-in recycling kit only
Cliff's Variety 479 Castro St. San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off
Cole Hardware 956 Cole St. San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Cole Hardware 2254 Polk St. San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Cole Hardware 345 9th St San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Cole Hardware 70 4th St. San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Cole Hardware (Rockridge) 5533 College Ave Oakland Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Cole Hardware, Vallejo St. 627 Vallejo St San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Creative Paint (5435 Geary) 5435 Geary Blvd. San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Crete Crush 12584 White Rock Road Rancho Cordova Recycle Free Drop-off
Dale Hardware 3700 Thornton Ave. Fremont Recycle Free Drop-off No large quantities.
Decathlon 735 Market Street San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Delta HHW Collection Facility 2550 Pittsburg-Antioch Hwy Antioch Recycle Free Drop-off, Drop-off for a Fee
Discount Builders Supply 1695 Mission St. San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
Duke's Hardware (2526 Noriega) 2526 Noriega St. San Francisco Recycle Free Drop-off All household-type, laptop, cell phone, and rechargeable batteries accepted. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
El Cerrito Recycling + Environmental Resource Center 7501 Schmidt Ln. El Cerrito Recycle Free Drop-off Batteries area.

Curbside Service

Special Action Note
Alameda
Residents may drop off household batteries (A, AA, AAA, C, D and 9-volt) at the ACI Alameda office or package in a sealed, clear plastic bag and place on top of the recyclable materials cart. (No car batteries allowed.)
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Albany
Put batteries in a clear plastic bag, seal it shut and place on the top of the recyclables cart.
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Berkeley
Castro Valley Sanitary District
Single-family and multi-family residents with blue recycling cart service may participate in CVSan’s curbside battery recycling program by placing used dry cell batteries (household batteries such as AAA, AA, B, C, D, 9V, and small “button” batteries) in a sealed clear plastic bag on top of your blue recycling cart on your service day. No automotive, lithium-ion or liquid batteries are accepted. Please tape terminals on 9-volt batteries.
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Dublin
Single Family Residents. Place used batteries on top of your recycle cart in a clear plastic bag.
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Emeryville
Emeryville accepts this item for curbside pickup, but don't put them in your carts or bins. Cart customers: place in sealed, zip bag taped to lid of recycling cart. Emeryville bin customers call to order mail-back collection container: 510-613-8710.
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Fremont
Hayward
Single Family Service - Household batteries can be put into a sealed clear bag & placed next to the Recycling cart on collection day. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
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Hayward (Oro Loma - L2)
Single Family Service - Place in zip loc bag on top of recycling cart
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Livermore
Single Family Service - Household batteries can be put into a sealed clear bag & placed on top of the Recycling cart on collection day. Please tape over lithium battery contacts.
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Newark
Single Family Service - Place in zip loc bag on top of recycling cart
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Oakland
Residents. Put household dry-cell batteries in a clear, sealed bag on top of recycling cart by 6am on your regular recycling pickup date. Always tape ends of batteries to avoid contact. Bag button-cell and NiCd batteries in a bag separate from alkaline batteries. Do not include rechargeable batteries.
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Piedmont
Place in Ziploc bag on top of the recycling cart. Also accepted at the Piedmont Fire Station for recycling.
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Pleasanton
Single Family Service - Place in zip loc bag on top of recycling cart
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San Leandro
Bag batteries in clear bag and put on top of Recycling cart.
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San Leandro (Oro Loma - L3)
Single Family Service - Place in zip loc bag on top of recycling cart
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San Lorenzo (Oro Loma)
Single Family Service - Place in zip loc bag on top of recycling cart
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Unincorporated Oro Loma (L1)
Single Family Service - Place in zip loc bag on top of recycling cart
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Union City
Single Family & Parcelized Multifamily Dwellings: Put in clear, sealed bag next to recycling cart.
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