Use PVC tape to cover the terminals before putting them in the recycling bin, so they don’t short out in there.
Thanks for posting
Hope all is and stays well
Have some no name / bad name cells and will put tape around they and dump m in the recycle bin.
I store batteries that are not in flashlights in a metal ammo can. I drilled a hole in the top as a blowout valve in the event of a vent. I just put electrical tape over the hole as a valve of sorts.
This would hopefully alert me of a minor vent so i don’t get a faceful of HFA by surprise, but would also keep the can from exploding if i had a major vent.
Yea much safer to buy trustfire you can trust em lol 
Thank you for reporting this Zebretta. I have some of those cells that I have never used, but didn't toss. I will discharge them today and take them to a recycle bin.
I did the same with my amo can expect I drilled a hole where you can’t see it from the outside of can behind the latch
running it to 0v removes all the energy and removes the risk.
good for cells you are going to recycle.
a real recycler will grind them up to recover components.
a whateverfire resleeving operation will still try to charge it for resale.
I'm pretty there was a cultural confusion here. I really don't think anyone meant disrespect or dishonesty over a flashlight battery discussion. People in different places have different ways of expressing themselves. What seems like a backhanded comment one place is a show of respect and humility in another, but I could be wrong.
Didn’t read the whole thread but the only real comment I have about all the comments freaking out over cells randomly bursting into flames.
How many millions and millions of brand name 18650’s are in laptops, power tools and other devices around us every day?
Now how often do you hear about them bursting into flames just sitting around doing nothing (this does not apply to the lipo packs in cells phones and the like or when the batteries are being charged ect).
I would say the odds are pretty good that a brand name cell will be just fine if not abused.
Damn , glad u are alright . I just discharged and tossed some old crappy ultrafire batteries as well . Glad I did. Now to think of it , I was really stupid , they were unwrapped bare 18650s because I was curious what was underneath the wrapping. Thankfully I joined this forum and read battery safety 101.
OK now I have 7 cells (1*26650 and 6*18650)
But just dumping them seems a bit of a waste so isn’t there something I can do with it? Like using the lithium to make some fertilizer or something idk.
??
It’s fairly common for laptop cells to short and start smoking. When they burst into flames or catch fire is the only time we hear about it. Through the years there has been instances where bad batches of cells or bad set ups have caused issues.
you grossly under estimate the numbers of cells in everyday use.
about 75% of households i know of have at least 1 laptop.some have up to 6.
average cell count is 6 per pack.i have 1 with 12.
if this is true everywhere the number is in the billions.if i could find out the number of households in the usa i think the number could be several billion.
that not counting power tools,vapes,flashlights.
there are some of us(myself included)with laptops,vapes,flashlights,converted gadgets,and over 100 18650 cells in their houshold.
and the big news is always some idiot with loose cells in a pocket or a shorted mech mod pipe bomb.
but no *.fire stuff here.
with the sheer bulk of garbage cells in circulation from *.fire companies and shoddy laptop replacement packs the reports of severe issues are rare.
There are loads of uses for lithium, but fertilizer isn’t one.
None of them seem suitable for the home dabbler.
with the volume of laptops i have cross my bench here and at work i have never had one brought in with a battery flameout or even had a customer report it.
had several macbooks with bulging/split open lipo packs and one dell but no explosions/fires.and a few of those junky rca tablets did the same.
with all that surrounds us at work the biggest danger is a kingkong 26650 that may be lost in my business partners truck.
if it is in a seat track or hinge kabloey! if it gets crushed.
Hmmm, Idk either. Might depend on what you were fertilizing.
You could always charge em’ up to full charge & then do different very abusive things to them individually to see what it actually did take to set those particular batteries off.
That would be interesting, educational, & kinda fun too.
Hmmm, I really doubt that statement as protection pcb is mostly (if not always) on negative side of the cell. If its on pos side that’s another indication to not trust the cell.
I keep all of my drill packs in the shed, away from the house. I too have gotten rid of all my UltraFires.
I do keep some quality cells in the house, stored in a tool cabinet dedicated to just batteries. I do wonder how much safer they are in that metal cabinet.
BUT, how about using a vintage refrigerator for a storage container. Back in the old days, they were built like a tank!
We bought our house in 2003, it was built in 1937. Get this, we bought it from the original owner. She as over 100!
The inside of the house was pristine, unchanged for years. I couldn’t bear to throw the refrigerator away, I parked it in the basement under the stairs. It’s been there ever since.
This is the unsafe kind of refrigerator, the kind that has a door that actually latches shut. Can not be opened from the inside.
Maybe if I were to use it to store Li-ions and there was a problem, with no release on the door, it could get sent through the roof like that water heater on Myth Busters 
I recycled 8 Samsung 18650-26F from my dads laptop
5 years old charged with 2400mAh
Even before you consider keeping cheap fire cells get an old laptop battery and you get decent cells for lights that are no hotrods
@dchomak……… Oh my, does your refrigerator still work?
I have one that looks just like it out in my garage. My folks bought it in 1948, a few years before I was born; and it has been running ever since.
They don’t make em’ like that anymore…… 