Incorrectly disposed-of batteries were likely to blame for three garbage truck loads catching fire in the Tweed Shire in the past six weeks, council staff said last week.
Staff said drivers had been obliged to dump the ‘hot loads’ out of their trucks to prevent more serious fires.
Rechargeable and embedded batteries are increasingly common in everyday devices, a council media release read, and the Australian Council of Recycling estimates between 10,000 and 12,000 battery related fires a year across Australian waste and recycling streams.
Council staff said the fire regularity raised serious concerns for council operations and costs as well as for public safety and the protection of residents’ property.
They said garbage truck drivers were trained to discharge loads when trucks started emitting smoke from their hoppers because continuing to drive would fan any flames.
‘The truck’s compaction system, which is designed to press material down and circulate air, can exacerbate a fire if it ignites inside,’ staff said.
Just one thrown-out battery can spark ‘catastrophic’ fire
Tweed Shire Council Resource Recovery Unit Coordinator Rod Dawson said he urged residents not to throw out ‘anything electronic that may contain a battery.
‘It’s not only wasteful, messy and expensive, but it puts our drivers in danger of smoke inhalation, burns or injury if the fire spreads inside the vehicle,’ Mr Dawson said, ‘if we lose the truck or the driver, we lose the ability to provide the service’.
Council staff said a single embedded battery in a discarded device such as a vape, electric toothbrush, toy or power tool could spark a fire that became catastrophic when mixed with other waste under pressure.
How to dispose of batteries in the Tweed Shire
The advice to Tweed Shire residents was to treat batteries as hazardous waste and adopt safe battery disposal practices as follows:
- Never place batteries or battery embedded devices in your red, yellow or green bins.
- Recycle small household batteries, old mobile phones and printer cartridges by bringing them to the Tweed Shire Council offices at Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads during business hours.
- Check Australia’s official battery stewardship scheme – B-cycle – to find other drop-off points (including supermarkets and hardware stores): Australia’s official battery stewardship scheme – B-cycle
- Take car batteries, cordless/lithium batteries, household batteries and laptop batteries to the Stotts Creek Resource Recovery Centre (the tip).
- Disposal of damaged, swollen or overheated batteries was ‘more complex,’ staff noted, advising to immerse them in water for safety and to contact the council’s Resource Recovery Unit for advice before transporting.
- Products with in-built batteries, known as embedded batteries, are designed to not have their batteries removed, and include bluetooth speakers, electric toothbrushes, toys including bikes and scooters, robotic vacuum cleaners and vapes. These devices need to be disposed of differently to other batteries. For more information including Northern Rivers product disposal spots, visit: Embedded batteries | EPA
The NSW Environment Protection Authority was reportedly running a pilot trial in several Community Recycling Centres to accept embedded battery products including vapes for free disposal but the closest for Tweed residents was in Ballina, Kyogle or Lismore.
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