Everyone has one. The box, drawer, or bag of cables that accumulated over 15 years of technology ownership: micro-USB cables for phones long gone, a VGA cable from a monitor that went to recycling in 2018, a tangle of white 30-pin iPhone cables, component video, a parallel port connector you cannot identify, and three different laptop power bricks for laptops you no longer own.
The good news: cables and chargers are easy to recycle. Best Buy accepts them, no purchase required. So does Staples. Call2Recycle specifically handles batteries and has drop-off locations at most hardware stores. Earth911 has a locator tool for specialty items like CRT monitors and large batteries.
Before you recycle: any cable that still works for a current standard (USB-C, HDMI, ethernet) should be kept or donated. A working USB-C cable has real value. A micro-USB cable in 2025 has almost none, but a local school, library, or electronics charity might still want it for older devices.
The one thing not to do: mix batteries in with cables and throw the whole thing in a bin that isn't rated for batteries. Lithium batteries are a fire hazard in recycling streams. Separate them, tape the terminals, and drop them at a dedicated battery recycling point — Home Depot, Lowe's, and Best Buy all have them.