No you can't just trash them. Check with your city or county and see if they have a battery disposal site. Also, check with you're work. If you deal with IT or manufacturing they sometimes have a battery disposal bin.
I am pretty sure my local HomeDepot and Lowes take rechargeable batteries to recycle. Battery Warehouse, Batteries+, and Battery Depot all take them as well.
wait you mean I can’t just throw them in the dumpster at my work? Damn now I know why it caught fire the other day.
I have a few dead soldiers myself. The overly football shaped I put on my dischargers and set them to kill. Meaning 0.0v per cell. I do this outside, someplace safe/fire resistant. When its done the kill cycle, I put them in a bucket of sand and let them hang out there until I remember that they're in there (which can be a long time). At which point I'll drop them off at the electronics/battery dropoff at the local public works.
If they decide to spontaneously combust, having them totally buried in sand (or submerged in water) will prevent the fire from getting out of control.
I've heard dropping them in a bucket of salt water is also a viable solution. For rendering them inert, that is.
