Lithium-ion battery fires are causing havoc in the waste and recycling sectors

EMILY BAKER, REPORTER: What you put in your bin will go to a facility like this in southwest Sydney.

Inside these walls, pizza boxes, cans and plastic bottles are processed at high speed.

RICHARD KIRKMAN, CEO, VEOLIA: This facility is a recycling center. We take the yellow lidded container that has paper, plastic, metal and cardboard in it and separate them to go back to the market. We process 30,000 tons per year in this facility.

EMILY BAKER: These people are the first line of defense against things that could destroy this building. Their job is to detect and remove things that shouldn’t be there.

RICHARD KIRKMAN: Here we have a collection of items that we have picked up from the picking line and salvaged from waste over the last few days.

Electronic equipment like this laptop is very common. They can get crushed in the truck, the lithium battery can catch fire, they can go through the line, go through the magnets and get crushed again, causing a fire here, set all the paper and cardboard on fire.

EMILY BAKER: This happens every day in the waste and recycling industry. As the use of lithium-ion batteries increases, so does the risk of disaster.

The 7:30 a.m. survey of recyclers and waste handlers estimates that between 10,000 and 12,000 battery fires occur in trucks and facilities each year.

RICHARD KIRKMAN: This is becoming the perfect storm. There are more and more batteries, there is more and more recycling. People try to do the right thing, but these things combine and more fires break out in Australia.

EMILY BAKER: Lithium-ion batteries are common because they are compact and powerful, but these properties mean they also carry risks.

DR ADAM BEST, CSIRO: With high energy density, we try to store energy in chemical form. So when these batteries fail, are overused or damaged, we can release that electrical energy in the form of chemical energy, so we see a fire and a potential explosion.

PAUL MCGUIGGAN, FIRE AND RESCUE NSW: The fire service is reporting around three fires a week. We have seen an increase of 66 people in the last 12 months and this only applies to the home, its surroundings, businesses and other things.

Almost every day we witness fires in waste facilities, garbage trucks and other things due to improper disposal of lithium-ion batteries, which also poses a great risk to us, the community.

EMILY BAKER: The issue is serious enough that batteries will be on the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting of state and federal environment ministers.

The waste management industry demands action.

GAYLE SLOAN, WASTE MGMT AND RESOURCE RECOVERY ASSN: These are built-in batteries. So this is a product that is on the market. I can’t remove the battery and there’s nowhere to do it.

EMILY BAKER: Cycle B is a nationwide program that collects some batteries for recycling but does not accept all items.

GAYLE SLOAN: We need to urgently expand the battery program and have a national program that covers all products.

In the meantime, every state government must fund collection centers to remove it from our stream, because there is no point in telling consumers not to put their garbage in the bin if you can’t tell them where to put it theirs.

EMILY BAKER: We reached out to the Federal Minister for the Environment for comment and received a response from a spokesperson for the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water:

DEPARTMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY, ENVIRONMENT AND WATER STATEMENT: Environment Ministers will be briefed… on the work Queensland is leading… to deliver a nationwide, coordinated approach to the safe collection and management of batteries.

This work will help address fire and safety risks and preserve the valuable materials contained in batteries in a circular economy.

EMILY BAKER: Consumers can take steps to use lithium-ion batteries safely.

ADAM BEST: If you have an electric scooter and you think you want a bigger battery in it, we really encourage consumers not to touch these things. They should not be played with.

We also encourage consumers to charge their devices on surfaces that are not flammable, as this will stop the process, even if the battery catches fire, and is less likely to spread to other components or items nearby.

PAUL MCGUIGGAN: A working smoke alarm is still the best way to keep you and your loved ones safe, and now is the perfect time to make sure that we check our smoke detectors, that they have batteries and that they are working, that we talk about an evacuation plan in home.

GAYLE SLOAN: Today, consumers have the option of not buying anything that has a built-in battery, and they have to buy something that is certified and safe.

EMILY BAKER: The waste industry says it’s doing everything it can to keep its workers and the community safe.

RICHARD KIRKMAN: This problem is completely solvable. If you look abroad, if you go to Northern Europe, there are mandatory battery recycling programs.

You go to local supermarkets, shopping malls, there are places where you can drop off batteries. You go to work, there is often a place where you can leave your batteries.

If you implement these programs, you can recover up to 75 percent of batteries placed on the market.

GAYLE SLOAN: If we don’t take action, we will continue to see buildings and trucks burning. This will potentially result in real injuries or serious injuries to our employees and, dare I say, death, which is what we are trying to avoid, and we will find that we have service disruptions or are unprofitable due to the need to pass on insurance costs.