A woman says AutoZone told her she could drop off her lithium-ion battery, but when she showed up, the store allegedly refused to take it

Finding a place to safely get rid of a lithium-ion battery that is beginning to expand and split turned into an exercise in frustration for Instagram user Ness (ness_official_acc). A few days ago, she began to film what she thought was a resolution of her journey, only to have a crash-out by the end when what she believed was a solution failed. Her resulting post racked up over 177K views.

The video starts with Ness walking to AutoZone as she told her viewers, “So after calling like a million different places to try and dispose of this glorious expanding lithium-ion battery, including the non-emergency fire department hotline, I finally found a place, and it’s the AutoZone right up the street from me. Thank goodness. The [non] emergency services came and told me that they can’t do anything about it unless it was actively catching on fire or heating up.”

Ness sarcastically told her viewers that the fire department allegedly told her to find a recycling or disposal place herself. However, when she reached AutoZone, it all went wrong. She claimed in the overlay that she called the store because the non-emergency services had explicitly recommended the store as a potential drop-off point.

AutoZone allegedly turned her away despite confirming over the phone

The video shows Ness speaking with an employee who is studying the battery as she explains that she had called ahead. The employee tells her, “I thought you meant like the type of batteries, like lithium.” When Ness points out that she is holding a lithium-ion battery, the employee responds, “Yeah, but we only take, like, car, motorcycle, or boat batteries.” AutoZone has not publicly responded to the video, and the store’s side of the exchange could not be independently verified.

After leaving the store, a visibly frustrated Ness has a crash-out, expressing her frustration with the wasted trip. Later, after she calmed down, she said, “I just was thinking this is why these things f—ing end up in dumpsters and catch fire in the garbage trucks, okay? Because it should not be this hard to find a f—ing place to dispose of this fire hazard before it actually catches fire.”

In her post caption, she alleged, “So far I’ve called/been to Staples, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Autozone, and the non-emergency hotline and no one can take it off my hands. I’ve consulted my cities e-waste disposal page as well as batterynetwork.org and they have only lead me to the places that I’ve called that say that they actually can’t take this battery. Where??????”

Her comments section echoed her frustration. One user pointed out the systemic issue, saying, “As someone who studied sustainability, you’re 100% right about how difficult it is to recycle them and why they end up in dumpsters. It’s incredibly frustrating that the onus of disposing of them falls on the consumer and not the manufacturer.” Others offered various suggestions, ranging from checking Apple Stores or local PC repair shops to calling municipal hazardous waste facilities.

According to R&D Batteries Inc, proper disposal is essential because lithium batteries can leak toxic chemicals into the environment or cause fires in waste facilities when damaged. Damaged lithium-ion cells have caused trouble far from landfills too, including a power bank fire mid-flight that forced a KLM plane to turn around. The company suggests that consumers always cover battery terminals with tape to prevent short circuits, store them in non-conductive containers like plastic away from heat, and avoid throwing them in regular trash.

&D noted that major retailers like Best Buy or Home Depot usually accept rechargeable batteries, as would most municipal hazardous waste facilities. Some manufacturers even run take-back programs. Home Depot, however, was one of the stores Ness said had already been unable to take her battery.