Three weeks after Christmas and the urge to purge our homes of clutter is real. But throwing the electrical out with the general waste creates a potentially lethal problem.
Neil Griffiths, Lead Officer for the National Fire Chiefs Council on Waste Fires understands the risks that come with this time of year. As the festive season fades from memory, households up and down the country are often faced with a range of things they no longer need. Like the cheap battery-powered tree light they thought might look nice, the smartphone they just replaced, or the poorly chosen but well-meaning present from that relative that visits once a year.
We all now know that single-use vapes are an environmental catastrophe, and one that research by Material Focus shows has only partly been solved with an outright ban. Recycling high end electrical is becoming increasingly appealing thanks to various cashback and trade-in offers.
By comparison, the grave waste crisis linked to so-called ‘fast-tech’ is has largely flown under the radar, despite Britons spending a staggering £1.7 billion on festive illuminations in 2024 alone, with 168 million sets of lights contributing 1.6 billion potentially dangerous lithium-ion batteries to the environment.
‘In your workplace, the way devices are managed and disposed of is robust, with strict end of life policies. So that’s not where the problem is. The problem is at home, and how many people don’t bother, or don’t know how, to dispose of batteries.’ Griffiths tells us. ‘Over the last three years, we’ve seen a significant increase in this type of fire at waste disposal sites and in waste vehicles. These are up about 71% since 2022. That’s a considerable amount.
‘The reason behind this is the volume – when you’ve got more and more products with these batteries reaching the market, as they fail or get replaced, what people do with the old ones is really important,’ he continues. ‘Anything with a lithium cell, when they are put in the bin truck can be compressed and crushed, at which point there is a risk of ignition. That’s a big problem.’
We ask Griffiths what type of equipment is most likely to cause a blaze. Worryingly, there’s no clear cut answer – he runs off a list including mobile phones, escooters and fairy lights. And, although there is some evidence to show that cheaper products are not built as well as more expensive options, and therefore pose a greater risk, this is also a point he’s not leaping to make.
The fear is that this could make some people feel their equipment is not a fire risk, when it clearly is.
‘More than anything, because they are so cheap people tend to buy them in higher quantities, so quite a lot at a time,’ interjects Will Trehane, from recycling specialist Material Focus. ‘The items then break quickly, or are just no longer wanted and as they didn’t pay much people feel OK to throw them out. That’s the big issue there.’
‘Over the last couple of months, we’ve seen a number of bin lorry fires across the country, which have led to big mounds of rubbish catching fire,’ says Griffiths. ‘The difficulty is what happens next. It’s very, very difficult to extinguish something that’s under piles of other items, and lithium-ion batteries also take a very long time to put out anyway.
The result can be a significant plume of toxic smoke, worsening localised air pollution and impacting both residents, workers, and the waste collectors. There’s also the threat of nearby houses catching on fire, and the fact lithium-ion cells can burn for long periods of time.
‘What happens, in layman’s term, you can put water on and it will go out. But take the water away again and it will ignite again,’ explains Griffiths. ‘You’ve got instances where fires have broken out in big recycling centres and it’s very, very difficult to extinguish then… certainly over the last year or so, there’s been a significant amount of resources used on this, maybe 15 to 20 fire engines dealing with one fire. This is over a period of six or seven days because they can’t extinguish it.’
The problem is national, although heavily urbanised areas are more prone to incidents because they deal with more refuse. This means no matter where people live, understanding how they should sort their own waste stream is essential – something the website recycleyourelectricals can help with. The domain has a map of more than 30,000 locations which can safely process devices with lithium-ion batteries. We ask if the solution is really just stopping people from buying so many cheap electronic items.
‘The society we live in involves technology flooding the market, and growing and growing and growing. So it’s more realistic, to say to people don’t stop buying, but recycle properly when it’s time to throw them away,’ Griffiths replies, while acknowledging that there some responsibility lies with manufacturers, who need to stop baking-in rapid obsoletion. ‘Single use products manufactured in scale are a risk.. I think companies need to focus on rechargeable items.’
Image: Material Focus
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