Batteries and light-up clothing accessories may seem small, but once they reach a landfill, they can cause outsized harm. They can leak toxic metals and chemicals into soil and water, and some battery types can also spark fires that are harder to control.
Hidden hazards in clothing waste
Clothing with built-in batteries, LEDs, heated panels, or other electronic parts is not just textile waste. It is a mix of fabric, plastic, wiring, and hazardous electronic material, which makes it much harder to break down safely than ordinary clothing. When this kind of item is thrown away, the battery or circuit component can be crushed, punctured, or exposed to heat and moisture in the landfill, increasing the chance of leaks or ignition.
Why landfills make it worse
Landfills are not neutral storage sites. Over time, buried batteries can corrode and release substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, nickel, and other harmful compounds into leachate, the contaminated liquid that can seep into soil and groundwater. Additionally, textile waste can persist for a very long time, and synthetic fabrics may take decades or centuries to decompose, so the electronic parts remain trapped in the waste stream long after the clothing is discarded.
Fire risk from batteries
In a recent episode of the Sustainable Solutions with Planet Aid podcast, Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director of the National Stewardship Action Council, spoke about the dangers these batteries pose. She said:
“We're having fires up and down the stream right now. So our trash trucks are burning to the ground. Our landfills are on fire. Our material recovery facilities and recycling centers are on fire. So, I mean, these lithium-ion batteries are absolutely wiping us out, and my projection is we're gonna be uninsurable within a year if we don't get these batteries out, and we're not gonna be able to get them out that fast.”
Lithium-ion batteries are especially dangerous in trash systems. If they are crushed by garbage trucks or landfill equipment, they can overheat, short-circuit, and enter thermal runaway, which may cause intense fires too difficult to extinguish. Those fires do more than damage equipment; they can expose workers and nearby communities to toxic smoke and costly cleanup.
Environmental and health impact
The main risk is not only the waste itself, but what escapes from it. Toxic metals can contaminate water sources and accumulate in ecosystems, where they may affect wildlife and enter the human food chain. Long-term exposure to these contaminants is linked to serious health concerns, including neurological damage and other chronic effects.
Better disposal choices
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) addresses electronics embedded in textiles by shifting responsibility for end-of-life management to producers. EPR pushes producers to address the growing textile landfill issues by funding collection, sorting, repair, reuse, and recycling systems instead of letting those items become landfill waste. That means clothing with LEDs, batteries, or other electronic parts needs to be designed and tracked to permit disassembly and separate treatment. The safest option is to keep clothing with batteries or lights out of the regular trash whenever possible. See more battery disposal tips below:
Battery safety disposal tips:
• Remove the battery if the design allows it
• Tape battery terminals for transport (Use a nonconductive tape like electrical tape, which prevents fire hazards and short circuits by stopping the exposed metal ends from touching other batteries or other metals).
• Take the battery or item to an e-waste or household hazardous waste collection program. Brands, retailers, and consumers all share responsibility for ensuring smart textiles, heated garments, and illuminated clothing are recycled or handled as hazardous e-waste rather than buried in landfills.
Responsible disposal is a small step that prevents pollution, reduces fire risk, and keeps a growing stream of wearable electronics from turning into a landfill problem.
Photo credit for evening dress: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sparkfun_LED_Prom_Dress-2.jpg