Lithgow City Council has issued a safety warning after a recycling truck in Wallerawang was recently forced to dump its load when a fire started in items from household recycling bins.
The Council says investigations are continuing but a battery incorrectly disposed of in the yellow-lid bin is a probable cause of the fire.
“Batteries must not go into any of the kerbside bins as garbage trucks are designed to compact material and batteries under pressure can start a fire that can rapidly spread,” it said in a statement.
“These incidents cause considerable harm to people, property and the environment. The incident in Wallerawang was carefully managed, and the driver and truck were not harmed; however, it still causes considerable stress for the driver and is a reminder of the dangers of putting batteries in bins.”
Drop off batteries for safe recycling as follows:
• Household batteries must be taken to a battery drop-off point for safe disposal and recycling. Council’s household battery drop-off points can be found at the Community Recycling Centre, administration building and libraries. Major supermarkets and hardware stores may also provide battery drop-off points.
• Car batteries, lithium batteries, laptop batteries and embedded batteries are only accepted at the Community Recycling Centre, within the Lithgow Solid Waste Facility.
• Embedded batteries are batteries that cannot be removed from the device they are in. These batteries are often found in items like electric toothbrushes, vapes and Bluetooth speakers.
Lithgow’s Community Recycling Centre is currently accepting embedded batteries as part of a collection trial by the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA). For more information, please visit: Embedded batteries | EPA.
Dubbo Regional Council provided footage (pictured) of a similar event that occurred in one of their trucks in August this year, with the blaze quickly spreading through the truck.
