Sefton Council’s cleansing team experienced first-hand the dangers of people putting batteries in general waste when a loose battery caused a fire to a bin lorry yesterday.

Quick thinking

To prevent any further danger, the quick thinking driver moved the vehicle from Rainbow Drive, Melling, where the fire started, to Tithebarn Lane, which is a quiet country road.

The entire load of waste was then removed from the lorry to allow fire services to safely put out the fire. Additional clean-up crews also had to be called out to dispose of the waste once it was deemed safe to do so.

Blaze

Councillor Peter Harvey, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Cleansing and Street Scene said: “Fire crews were called out to tackle the blaze, which took place at Tithebarn Lane, Melling, and managed to contain it.

“Fortunately, no-one was harmed during this incident, but it does illustrate how dangerous batteries in general waste can be.

“When batteries get squashed, punctured, or shredded during collection, they can get hot and catch fire. This can then ignite other waste in the vehicle, or at a waste transfer and disposal facility, and put staff at risk, which is what happened yesterday.

“We can all help prevent the potential risk to lives by taking any used batteries to one of the many dedicated recycling points that are available in shops, supermarkets and other locations as well as at our Sefton recycling centres.”

Chemicals

Councillor Harvey added that batteries also contain chemicals like lead, mercury, and lithium that can be dangerous to the environment if they are not disposed of correctly.

Sefton Council supports the national campaign to highlight the correct way to dispose of electrical items, including loose batteries and items with built in batteries.

The Recycle Your Electricals campaign offers guidance on how to dispose of electrical items safely, and provides maps to the nearest recycling points and places which can help people to repair broken electricals.