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Lincolnshire County Council is warning people that batteries and electricals cannot be discarded in general waste bins after two household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) were forced to close due to separate battery fires.
The council stressed that batteries need to be recycled with other electricals in separate containers at HWRCs.
On 5 February a fire at the Spalding HWRC was started after a car battery was discarded into general waste. The fire was attended to by crews from Spalding and Boston fire stations and the site remained closed for several hours.
Then later in the week on 10 February a fire at Gainsborough HWRC was attended by fire crews from Gainsborough after a fire broke out in their general waste bin.
The cause of the fire was identified as a wrongly discarded AA battery and the HWRC reopened the following day.
Council Warning
Cllr Daniel McNally, executive member for waste and recycling at Lincolnshire County Council, explained: “Whether it goes into your bins at home, or to a Household Waste Recycling Centre, waste is compacted several times on its journey to its final destination, and it’s at these points where electrical items that have been disposed of incorrectly can spark and start a fire.
“These incidents at Spalding and Gainsborough are the latest in a line of fires caused by electrical items in the wrong place. We’ve seen fires in bin lorries and even at our contractors’ processing plants; it must stop.
“Putting electrical items and batteries in bins puts waste workers at risk. You’ll find recycling points for batteries and electrical items of all types and sizes at each of our household waste recycling centres. You can also recycle batteries at most supermarkets”.
Disposing properly of all electrical items is very important. We stress how key it is to follow the in-place procedures regarding this. The wrong disposal methods can be very dangerous as shown by events like this.