The Environmental Services Association (ESA) has relaunched the national Take Charge Campaign today (24 October) to try and reverse the growing trend of battery fires by encouraging consumers to recycle batteries responsibly.
The ESA has relaunched the campaign along with its members and compliance scheme Ecosurety. It says the campaign provides a wide range of visual content and encourages all stakeholders in the recycling and waste industry to share the campaign content across their social media channels.
The Halloween-themed campaign officially launches on 24th October 2022 and will run until 7th November 2022. After this date, a range of non-Halloween campaign content will be made available for use in perpetuity – including items like signage for Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), bin-hangers and posters.
The campaign messaging urges consumers to only recycle batteries, and electronic devices containing batteries, using specialist recycling services, and reminds the public to never throw batteries away alongside general rubbish or other recycling by drawing attention to the fire risk.
We urge everyone to please recycle batteries and electronic devices responsibly and help us stop waste batteries from becoming zombies.
An independent report published by Eunomia in 2021 concluded that nearly 50% of all recycling and waste fires in the UK are started by lithium-ion batteries alone and that the total cost of these fires to the country exceeds £150 million each year.
The Eunomia research estimated that just over 200 fires at UK recycling and waste management facilities are caused yearly by batteries.
However, the ESA says it considers this to likely be an under-estimate with the organisation local authorities and recycling and waste management companies across the UK reporting in 2022 that battery fires are an increasing problem.
Informal reporting suggests that the annual number of battery fires could be three times higher than the Eunomia estimates with hundreds more fires occurring in recycling and waste management facilities and collection vehicles, the ESA says.
Dead batteries thrown away with other waste and recycling are likely to be crushed or punctured once the waste is collected and processed. Some battery types can ignite or even explode when this happens, which sets fire to other materials present in the waste, like paper, leading to serious incidents that can put lives at risk and take days to extinguish, the ESA says.
Fires at recycling and waste facilities, unfortunately, seems to have risen considerably and is affecting all operators in the sector.
Executive Director of the ESA, Jacob Hayler, said: “Since we first launched Take Charge in 2020, the number of battery- fires at recycling and waste facilities, unfortunately, seems to have risen considerably and is affecting all operators in the sector – not helped by the tinder-dry conditions caused by the heatwave this summer.
“These fires not only put lives at risk but also seriously threaten vital infrastructure upon which all of us across the UK rely every day. We urge everyone to please recycle batteries and electronic devices responsibly and help us stop waste batteries from becoming zombies.”
