Featured Image Credit: kiersmini/Reddit / Pacific Press / Contributor/Getty
If you've got any really old phones stashed away in drawers or boxes, look away now, because one iPhone user claims to show what can happen to old devices.
They posted to Reddit to share an image of an old iPhone they had under their bed, showing a phone without its back, and a hugely swollen battery, which they say belongs to the phone.
That battery has puffed up to the point where it looks like a plastic pillow, and the poster was looking for advice on how they could "dispose of it safely".
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This battery swelling is a known phenomenon that can happen to older and degraded lithium-ion batteries but is somewhat rare.
The swelling can cause the battery to rupture, which can be explosive on a small scale and present a fire risk.
So, once you find a phone in this state there's definitely a clear course of action, as confirmed by the most upvoted comment under the post: "Check the website for your city's waste management department and they'll tell you how to throw it out."
After all, just throwing this in your regular waste bin could be a risky idea since it's liable to get crushed and burst in there, potentially again resulting in a fire.
Disposing of batteries can often be a little complicated depending on how your local authority handles things, and another commenter recommended that the poster "put it in a fireproof container" until they knew how to get rid of it.
In fact, another commenter suggested that if they couldn't find a safe way to dispose of the batter they could get more inventive and "keep it in a jar of sand outside". This might sound unconventional but it would indeed stay safe and get the job done.
Another popular comment underlined the most important part of all of this advice, though, by saying: "Do NOT poke a hole in it".
As it turns out, comparing the swollen battery to a pillow isn't a wholly original thought, because there's an entire subreddit discussion board dedicated to swollen batteries, literally called r/spicypilllows.
This board hosts loads more photos like this one, showcasing people's phones after they've had their batteries swell, but it also offers up a core FAQ post about what to do if you find your own phone like this.
The FAQ has tips including the important one to not puncture the battery, and it also explains that the swelling is caused by chemical reactions in a degraded battery that don't work quite right due to age and degraded components. This causes "a flammable and toxic gas" to be emitted instead, and that's what swells the battery cell.
But for official info, also check out the Apple support pages because they state very clearly: "Batteries should be recycled or disposed of separately from household waste and according to local environmental laws and guidelines".
