An old mobile phone, an electric toothbrush, or a used e-cigarette, although these devices are small, can cause a fire during collection and sorting if they are thrown away with household waste. Even a small battery can cause major problems, so it is important to dispose of them correctly, Latvian Television issued a reminder on October 14.
When waste from a bin is loaded onto a waste lorry, it is compacted. If the bin contains only the household waste for which it is intended, everything is fine; however, various electrical appliances are often disposed of alongside it.
Anatolijs Kurlovičs, an employee at “CleanR”, said: “It’s mainly electrical equipment. Most of it consists of mobile phones with batteries, tablets, computers or e-cigarettes. They’re tiny, but they can cause a lot of trouble, as they explode and catch fire during compaction. The load can catch fire, and the lorry itself can catch fire too.”
Einārs Sprūģis, a researcher at the Institute of Solid State Physics (CFI) at the University of Latvia (LU), explained what batteries consist of: “A battery typically has two electrodes: a positive and a negative one. Between them is an electrolyte, which is often liquid. It is usually enclosed in some sort of casing.”
It is precisely this liquid that can catch fire. As long as the casing is intact and there is no short circuit, everything will be fine, but if it is crushed or compressed – for example, by a tractor bucket – the battery may burst into flames. Batteries aren’t just found in the usual AA batteries. They’re almost everywhere, even in very small devices.
Valerijs Stankevičs, Chairman of the Board at ‘CleanR’, said: “Anything that contains microchips, anything that needs charging – such as vapes, e-cigarettes, electric toothbrushes, headphones, computers, fridges – the larger the item, the more important it is that it ends up in the correct recycling bin.”
If they end up in a household waste bin, the risk of fire increases. Waste management operators acknowledge that they are encountering battery fires with increasing frequency. These tend to occur both on sorting lines and in lorries.
“Lorries have to stop work. In some cases, emergency unloading is required. Complete or partial,” said the chairman of the board at “CleanR”, describing the consequences.
The greatest risk of fire comes from devices containing lithium batteries.
However, if batteries and electrical appliances are sorted correctly, they can be given a new life through recycling.
Andris Karlsons, a board member of “Eco Baltia vide”, said: “Battery recycling itself is already very well developed at present. There’s no problem with that. The biggest problem is collecting batteries separately and transporting them to recycling plants. If batteries are taken to shops, waste sorting centres or other specialised collection points, then everything ends up being recycled. All these materials and chemical components can be recovered quite effectively and used to manufacture new batteries.”
So the solution begins with the everyday choices each person makes. Used batteries should be placed in the designated boxes in shops, whilst end-of-life electrical appliances should be taken to waste collection points or recycling centres.
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