First, you’ll want to make sure that your LiPo drone battery has been fully discharged. This helps to prevent a potential fire from the battery either getting wet or punctured.

You can consult the battery safety guidelines or some other kind of drone manufacturer user guide for proper discharge sequencing. If you own a DJI drone, the maintenance manual states to drain the battery while it’s inside the drone, only if this is possible of course.

Realizing this will only get the battery down to around 10%, consider bleeding off the remaining voltage with another battery, like a 12 V low-voltage bulb.

There are several options when it comes to dropping off the battery for disposal. Places like Lowe’s, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target accept rechargeable batteries as part of their recycling program. We recommend checking with your local stores to see if they participate.