Commentary: Battery fires threaten waste management workforce and clean energy transition

Lithium-ion batteries and battery circularity are keys to the clean energy transition, powering everything from cellphones to electric vehicles. While these batteries play an important role in our everyday lives, they also pose serious fire risks—particularly to waste and resource management facilities. Why? Because lithium-ion battery fires burn faster and hotter than normal fires and consumers are often unsure about how to safely and sustainably dispose of old lithium-ion batteries.

According to a recent UL Standards & Engagement survey, more than one-third of consumers (36 percent) report throwing old lithium-ion batteries in the trash and another 30 percent said they mix them with recyclables.

What these consumers likely don’t know is that simple acts can have serious consequences. These batteries—if damaged, overheated, counterfeit or substandard—can enter thermal runaway, a chain reaction that creates excessive heat inside the cell.

With more rechargeable products on the market and with many consumers tossing old lithium-ion batteries into trash and curbside recycling because they are not aware they shouldn’t, fires in waste management and recycling trucks and facilities have increased significantly.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, which represents 10,000 public and private sector professionals in waste and resource management, has been facing serious challenges with this issue and the increasing number of lithium-ion batteries in the waste and recycling stream.

In response, the association created a Lithium-Ion Battery Workgroup to identify immediate and long-term solutions to lithium-ion battery management and fire prevention. Efforts like these are critical to finding a solution for these ongoing issues because they build tangible recommendations for lithium-ion battery technology development, facility safety practices and public policy and can help raise public awareness.

The growing need to raise awareness

Lack of awareness is in part what led to a fire in a Des Moines, Iowa, metro recycling facility in October causing an estimated of $1 million in property damage.

More recently, another fire in Alberta was captured on video. In another incident in New Jersey, a firefighter was severely injured while trying to put out flames at a recycling center. Unfortunately, with the volume of these fires, it is a matter of time before we see more tragic outcomes.

Fires in recycling and trash facilities or trucks have flooded the news in Florida, Oregon, New York, Ohio and more. The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), Arlington, Virgina, estimates more than 5,000 fires occur annually at recycling facilities alone, recently warning many were likely linked to lithium-ion batteries.

The alarming number of fires in waste and resource recovery vehicles and facilities is a serious safety concern, has caused extensive facility damage and is leading to unaffordable insurance rates for many recycling facilities.

With an increase in these events, some cities and states have pushed to ban battery disposal in landfills, establish extended producer responsibility for batteries or provide additional funding for battery collection and recycling. Seattle Public Utilities most recently banned all batteries and some electronics from being disposed of in the garbage. While bans like these are helpful and could be seen as a solution, enforcement is difficult and hard to enforce.

So, what should consumers do?

Only 48 percent of U.S. consumers are aware of a local collection point. Every jurisdiction has its own rules, and many municipalities across the country have battery recycling programs. Determining and locating local trash and recycling centers for battery disposal is an important first step in reducing fires.

This issue, however, cannot be solved by consumers alone. Companies and manufacturers have an opportunity to lead the fight in circularity and sustainability by testing and certifying to safety standards.

To achieve this, these batteries and the devices using them should be certified to standards that support innovation and circularity.

As companies like Apple and Samsung certify their products to such standards, we get closer to safer, more sustainable battery circularity.

For lithium-ion batteries to have their intended impact on the clean energy transition, they must first be safe and, second, sustainable. Through educating consumers on disposal and adhering to safety and sustainability standards, lithium-ion batteries can be a safe source of clean energy, not a fire risk for management facilities and their workforce.

Caitlin D’Onofrio is the sustainability program manager for UL Standards & Engagement, a safety nonprofit based in Evanston, Illinois. In her work, D'Onofrio collaborates with industry experts in sustainability and individuals from balanced standards development consensus bodies, i.e., technical committees, comprised of volunteer experts.

Kristyn Oldendorf is the senior director of public policy and communications at the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), a membership association. Oldendorf advocates for the waste and resource management industry and collaborates with a range of stakeholders on resources on policies.