There's gotta be more to it than that, mine's been plugged in more often than not for five years and it doesn't look like a freshly popped bag of popcorn. Jesus, how do you even dispose that thing?
How to dispose of it? Easy, take it to your town's garbage recycling center. They have containers and protocols for things like this.
At least, thats for west-eu stuff locations. Not sure what the other sides ( asia and america ) deal with garbage recycling :)
Generally I just pop a straw in it like a Capri Sun and suck out the excess electrolyte. Then the battery is good as new
It varies from state to state in the US. I usually take old batteries and old electronics to Best Buy - but I haven't had to recycle anything that potentially volatile before.
Naw, this battery just has or developed a flaw over time. It's not super uncommon, but it's not very common either - regardless of how long you keep your laptop plugged in.
