The National Heavy vehicle Regulator (NHVR) and Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) want to keep batteries and consumer electronics out of waste bins to prevent garbage truck fires.
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ACOR CEO Suzanne Toumbourou says this safety message is urgent, with over 10,000 battery-related fires a year across Australia’s waste and recycling systems.
“Our sector is seeing an increasing number of discarded batteries and consumer electronics wrongly placed in conventional household and commercial bins, instead of being safely disposed of in designated battery or e-waste collection points,” she says.
“These items cause fires throughout waste and recycling systems, including in bins, trucks, transfer stations and recycling facilities – posing a serious threat to the safety of our workers and jeopardising critical recycling infrastructure.”
“We call on governments across Australia to significantly boost community education on how to correctly dispose of consumer electronics; and urge the public to always check and ensure they’re doing the right thing to protect waste and recycling workers, emergency services and the wider community.”
An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission survey identified over a third of Australians didn’t know how to correctly dispose of lithium-based batteries or consumer electronics.
Lithium-based batteries should be topped and tailed with clear sticky tape and taken to a local council resource recovery centre or a participating hardware or grocery store with a battery recycling program.
Commercial waste and recycling services will pick up or receive businesses’ discarded batteries and electronic products for a fee.
NHVR COO Paul Salvati says greater education around safely disposing and recycling batteries and electronic products is key to safeguarding against garbage truck fires.
“A small battery or electronic device can have huge consequences when it starts a fire. Toxic gases endanger workers and members of the public, and contamination occurs when a truck’s load is dumped and extinguished,” he says.
“Prevention is the safest approach – truck fires and explosions can be drastically reduced if the community stops putting lithium-based battery-powered items such as old mobile phones, laptops, power tools or robot vacuum cleaners into general waste bins.”
Salvati says it’s extremely difficult for waste and recycling truck drivers to detect battery-powered electronic items once they are loaded into the vehicle, but there are safety measures that can limit the impact of any truck fires.
“In the event of a waste truck fire, industry can help minimise the harm to vehicles, roads and the environment by ensuring trucks are equipped with tested fire control equipment, and all personnel are trained in up-to-date safety protocols and procedures,” he says.
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