Discarded batteries spark fires at Brady Road landfill

City of Winnipeg waste disposal staff want people to stop throwing batteries in the trash after recent incidents in which they sparked fires in the landfill.

Lithium batteries have caused six fires at the Brady Road site this year, waste diversion superintendent Mark Kinsley said. Some fires were traced to batteries in vapes and power tools, with the most recent fire happening in May.

“Do not put them (lithium batteries) in your garbage or recycling,” Kinsley said. “We need residents and the public to divert their items in the right ways.”

Lithium batteries are in many electronics, including electric tooth brushes, e-bikes and cellphones.

He said they should be taken to one of the city’s three 4R depots to be recycled safely without risk of combusting. The city’s depots are at 1120 Pacific Ave., 429 Panet Rd. and 1825 Brady Rd.

Lithium batteries are dangerous because of the fragile nature of the chemicals inside and the battery casing. All it takes is one puncture for the sensitive chemical mixtures inside the battery to react with air and catch on fire.

Kinsley said when a battery is placed in a garbage or blue recycling bin, the heavy machinery that moves the refuse boosts the risk of it being punctured because it could be crushed as other waste is piled on top.

Landfills are particularly dangerous, he said, because there’s plenty of fuel that batteries could ignite quickly, such as dry scrap wood.

While there has been no battery fires at Winnipeg’s main recycling sorting building at 195 Discovery Pl., Kinsley is worried if people don’t change their disposal habits, fires will start there, too.

“We’re all used to the convenience of a lot of things and wanting things right at our fingertips,” Kinsley said. “Sometimes, you have to put a little more effort to find the best way when recycling your batteries.”

When the batteries are properly recycled, the metals inside the casing can be salvaged, and the lithium can be reused.

Sally Tran, a co-ordinator at the Electronic Recycling Association in Winnipeg, said the public needs more education on how to recycle lithium batteries because many people aren’t aware they should be removed from devices and recycled. The national non-profit focuses on reusing and recycling unwanted electronics.

“We need to keep those batteries out of landfills and minimize the opportunity of them catching fire and exploding,” Tran said.

She said manufacturers need to improve product labels to explain how to dispose of the batteries.

The non-profit has its own recycling facility, at 1200 Sherwin Rd., where people can drop off batteries. It offers free pick-up for businesses and individuals.

matthew.frank@freepress.mb.ca