Discarded items may contain batteries which can cause fires if they are damaged. As such, the belief is that they need to be treated differently to general household waste.
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): WEEE generally covers products that have a plug or need a battery, such as fridges, vacuum cleaners, cookers, mobile phones and computer equipment.
Discarded items may contain batteries which can cause fires if they are damaged. As such, the belief is that they need to be treated differently to general household waste.
With councils set to collect two million unwanted WEEE items, the BMRA is calling on local authorities to carry out kerbside collections.
James Kelly, CEO of the BMRA, said: “Councils need to introduce kerbside collections for discarded WEEE items. We are seeing increased fires happening in bin lorries and at household waste recycling centres as well as metal recycling sites like those of our members where these items can end up in the incorrect waste stream. People’s lives are at risk.”
The BMRA states that the fires are often caused by damaged lithium and lithium-ion batteries housed inside the discarded electrical items. There have long been fears that these batteries cause fires. Research conducted as part of the ‘Recycle Your Electricals’ campaign led by Material Focus suggests that such batteries can now be linked to 700 fires in the past 12 months.
Kelly, whose Trade Association represents the £7 billion UK metal recycling sector, has made the point that this issue is particularly prominent at Christmas and in the early part of the New Year.
“Almost two fires every day across the country can now be linked to these batteries,” asserted Kelly. “In the space of ten weeks, thanks to Black Friday deals, Christmas gifts, the Boxing Day sales and the January sales, we are likely to see millions of electrical items being discarded. If there is not an easy option, such as kerbside collection, it’s likely that much of this waste will be disposed of incorrectly. This massively increases the risk of fires across the waste sector. That’s why we need to see kerbside collections introduced right away.”
Courtesy: www.fsmatters.com
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