Where can I recycle power tool batteries?

Last verified 2026-09-30

Take it to Bunnings. Every store has a battery collection unit at the front entrance, it’s free, and power tool batteries are on the published list of what those units accept.

For most people, that’s the whole answer. The rest of this page is the detail that stops the trip going wrong.

Tape the terminals first

A “flat” pack isn’t an empty pack. There’s enough charge left in a used lithium tool battery to throw a spark if its contacts touch something metal.

B-cycle’s instruction for a power tool pack is to cover all exposed metal parts. Bunnings asks for clear sticky tape, non-conductive electrical tape or duct tape over the exposed terminals, and asks you to keep the label readable if you’re not using clear tape.

Carry the pack on its own, not loose in a bag with keys, coins or other batteries. If you’re saving up packs for one trip, B-cycle asks for a glass container that is not airtight, kept cool and dry, away from anything metal.

If Bunnings isn’t convenient

The B-cycle drop-off finder has a power tool batteries filter, so you can see the drop-off points that take them.

Tradies get the same service. Bunnings Trade publishes it as a national program for trade as well as retail customers, but it’s still a household-scale service, and Bunnings says it can’t accept commercial quantities.

What the supermarket bins say

The supermarket bins don’t all accept the same things.

• ALDI lists what it takes as AAA, AA, C, D, 9V and button cells, and sends everything else, lithium batteries included, to a drop-off finder instead.
• Coles lists all handheld batteries and rechargeables, including batteries easily removed from handheld equipment such as power tools, and refuses anything over 5 kg.
• Woolworths lists all handheld batteries regardless of type or brand.

Bunnings adds a physical rule in writing: if a battery doesn’t fit through the collection unit’s slot, it isn’t accepted.

Big packs: over 5 kg

B-cycle’s published scope covers handheld rechargeable batteries of all chemistries up to 5 kg, and its drop-off limit is 5 kg.

The NSW EPA puts “batteries from large power tools” in its 5–20 kg tier, alongside removable e-bike packs and cordless vacuum batteries, and sends that tier to a Community Recycling Centre or a Household Chemical CleanOut event. It’s free for householders, and there are more than 100 centres across the state. Only household quantities are accepted (as a guide, up to 20 litres or 20 kilograms for each waste type), and businesses aren’t eligible.

Not sure which side of the line your pack is on? Weigh it.

What not to do

• Don’t put it in a kerbside bin. The NSW EPA says batteries should never be disposed of in kerbside bins, and the waste industry reports an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 battery-related fires a year nationwide.
• Don’t put a swollen, cracked or hot pack in a collection unit. A damaged battery is a different problem with a different answer.

What happens to it

Bunnings’ recycling partner is Ecobatt, which also services the Woolworths units. Bunnings says 95 per cent of battery components can be reused through the program. Woolworths puts the same figure at over 95 per cent of materials recovered, with the casings the part that can’t be reused yet. Bunnings says the recovered materials can be reused in other industries or to make items such as new batteries.

The other question

If what you actually want to know is which pack to buy, whether platforms are compatible, or why a pack stopped holding charge, that’s a different question and it’ll get its own page. This one is only about getting rid of a pack safely.