Prevent, detect, suppress

When Cincinnati-based Rumpke Waste & Recycling hosted a training event in cooperation with a municipal fire department this fall, it was in keeping with the company’s wider effort to instill a culture of attentiveness and responsiveness to the growing threat of fires at transfer stations and material recovery facilities (MRFs).

Rumpke and other waste and recycling facility operators Waste Today has contacted have found themselves more susceptible to fires since lithium-ion batteries became prevalent in smartphones and other electronic devices that can enter waste and recycling streams.

Such companies have not yet found a silver bullet to eliminate the threat but instead are minimizing the risk by training frontline employees to pluck batteries and devices from inbound mixed streams and treat “hot spots” quickly before they grow into fires requiring 911 calls.

More separation, less anxiety

Photo courtesy of Ecomaine

Although lithium-ion batteries were identified more than a decade ago as a growing fire hazard in the waste sector, a report issued by West Bloomfield, Michigan-based Fire Rover labels 2021 as “the worst year for publicly reported fire incidents at waste and recycling facilities in the United States and Canada since 2016.”

According to that report, the waste industry experienced 367 reported fires in 2021, exceeding what Fire Rover and one of its partners Ryan Fogelman refer to as the “lithium-ion battery wave” of fires that hit MRFs and solid waste facilities in 2018.

In January 2021, Portland, Maine-based Ecomaine was among the early victims of what would become a steady parade of fires that year. Within three days of the blaze that struck its MRF in Portland, Ecomaine determined the fire began when a lithium-ion battery from a drill or another tool was broken, and volatile chemicals released from the battery ignited nearby materials.

“Rechargeable batteries are a great technology, but they are becoming much more prevalent all the time, and they can be dangerous if they are put into everyday recycling or trash,” Ecomaine Director of Communications and Public Affairs Matt Grondin said at that time.

Ten months later, Grondin says the multijurisdictional waste and recycling agency increased its attention to inbound batteries beyond programs established in prior years.

“Due to the incredible proliferation of lithium-ion batteries in things from phones to greeting cards, Ecomaine has incorporated battery recognition and response training on regular occasions during its MRF’s weekly safety training,” Grondin tells Waste Today. “Additionally, batteries and battery-powered devices are immediately separated, sequestered and sent to a processer when they are identified.”

Grondin adds, “In addition to incorporating battery recognition and response training into the MRF’s weekly safety training, Ecomaine also hosted a webinar on battery safety by [Atlanta-based] Call2Recycle for all staff, making it available on YouTube for those who could not attend in person.”

Adam Burleson, operations manager at the Grove City, Ohio-based Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO), says the organization does not accept lithium-ion batteries or devices containing them but must be alert to their presence in the waste and recycling streams.

“SWACO trains [its] employees to keep an eye out for [batteries] in the waste and especially hot spots in the waste that could escalate to a fire,” Burleson says.

Rumpke, which has facilities in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, says that in addition to fire training exercises involving local fire departments (See the sidebar, “An ally on good days and bad,” on Page 30), battery and device identification is an ongoing focus for the company.

“We have pulled actual items off of the line and saved them to utilize in our monthly in-service meetings to show examples of what types of items have lithium-ion batteries in them,” Rumpke Corporate Communications Manager Molly Yeager Broadwater says. “Not everyone knows what items or equipment have those types of batteries in them, [so] we have put a lot of effort into this as a team,” she adds.

Automation also plays a role in detection strategies.

Grondin says Ecomaine uses “standard and thermal camera technology” in high-risk areas so it can detect hot spots before they burst into a wider blaze.

At its MRFs, Rumpke says it has deployed automated infrared detection on some conveyor lines for the same reason.

These same organizations, however, know the sheer volume of batteries hitting the waste stream means early fire detection and suppression systems are necessary investments.

Photo courtesy of Ecomaine

Investing in damage control

When a fire suppression system is activated at a waste or recycling facility, it is far from a welcomed event. However, the alternative scenario of an out-of-control blaze is a decidedly worse outcome.

In central Ohio, Burleson says SWACO uses a fire detection/suppression system at both its transfer stations. These systems will dispense water until they are manually turned off, he says.

Municipal solid waste landfills, including one operated by SWACO, have a more traditional suppression system, Burleson says. “At the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill, owned and operated by SWACO, the waste is covered daily with soil or an approved alternate daily cover that is flame-resistant.”

Ecomaine employs technology at its MRF similar to the technology SWACO uses at its transfer stations.

“Safety measures have been put in place if our terrific staff do miss a battery—namely a water cannon and fire suppression system installed by Johnson Controls [with North American headquarters in Milwaukee] in 2019,” Grondin says.

At the Maine nonprofit agency, detection works hand in hand with fire suppression via a notification system that is activated when temperature thresholds are reached. The notifications are received by pertinent staff who “can review and respond, if necessary, with inspections, water cannon or deluge systems,” he says.

Ecomaine stresses employee safety, Grondin says. When a hot spot is identified, he says, “Staff may respond appropriately but safely and from a distance if needed” because of the way the system has been configured.

Because it operates in various cities and counties across three different states, Rumpke interacts with fire departments in numerous locations.

Grondin adds, “Our recycling suppression system may be activated directly from the panel inside the MRF, from a remote control outside the building or even remotely from our 24-hour control room operating in our waste-to-energy plant in a separate building on our campus.”

Yeager Broadwater says Rumpke tipping floors are equipped with what she calls integrated positioning system water cannons. The high-powered water nozzles are part of a system that “automatically detects fire and initiates a water cannon to begin soaking the affected area,” she says, adding that the system manufacturer helped conduct training with the Rumpke team during its installation.

In addition to a recent training event at its old MRF in Columbus, Ohio, Yeager Broadwater says the company also hosted a training event during the fall in Cincinnati.

“The local department comes on-site, sets a contained fire and allows our team to utilize a fire extinguisher and put the fire out,” she explains. “This is repeated until each member of the team has touched an extinguisher.”

The waste and recycling company has concentrated on MRF fire prevention in part because of the national outbreak of “fires resulting from lithium-ion batteries inside of bales,” Yeager Broadwater says. “Each of these incidents requires a rapid response and building evacuation.”

A big problem can call for a bigger fire extinguisher, she notes, so Rumpke has an extinguisher on hand at its MRFs that is made by EnforcerOne LLC, a Georgia-based company, that offers models large enough they need to be mounted on wheels.

The statistics continue to point to a fire problem at transfer stations and MRFs that is yet to be stamped out. This likely means additional fire-detection and fire-suppression technology will be introduced and additional training to combat fires in the waste and recycling environment will be needed.

The author is senior editor for Recycling Today Media Group and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.