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There is a real need for this. Just today I was dropping the kids off at school and was diverted because a garbage truck had caught fire and had to dump its pay

There is a real need for this. Just today I was dropping the kids off at school and was diverted because a garbage truck had caught fire and had to dump its payload in the middle of the playground. A flaming pile of hot garbage. The firefighter said it was probably caused by a battery someone left in the dumpster...

sumy23 4y ago
I've always wondered about this. It seems like it would be quite common that someone would throw away a Li-ion battery. In garbage trucks that compact garbage (all of them?), it would be easy to damage the battery and cause a fire. On the other hand, there might not be a lot of oxygen in the compressed garbage to sustain the fire.
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  I think standard procedure for garbage trucks is to dump the load over a long area when this happens. There’s probably thermal detectors in the bin that let them know pretty quick that something is up.
- dangrossman 4y ago
  Lithium battery fires are extra dangerous because they produce their own oxygen, so they do not need an external oxygen source, and can even continue burning when completely submerged in water.
lnsru 4y ago
Almost every shop in Germany has a box for collecting old batteries. There is even one in the office. I happily throw my old batteries there. It’s so easy and convenient.
- spathi_fwiffo 4y ago
  US has this too, most hardware stores, and some offices. Some people are just lazy or don't know.
  - kxyvr 4y ago
    I don't think it's this way everywhere, but I do worry that many of these store disposal options may not work particularly well. A few weeks ago, I had an argument with an employee at Home Depot. I was looking for the battery disposal area and the employee wanted to see what I wanted to deposit. I had a small CR2032 lithium and was told that they don't do the flat ones. That was news to me and my best guess was that the employee was confused about the kind of battery because many of the small batteries are alkaline, which my city has us dispose in the trash. Anyway, eventually management got involved and I was told to just deposit it because they'll throw it away later. After I deposited the battery, the employee opened the box in order to fish it out and the box was full of trash. At best, people were putting large numbers of AAA, AA, C, and D batteries in grocery bags and just throwing them in. Frankly, I think a good amount of it was just plain garbage. The point is that I think that particular Home Depot just takes most of what is in the battery disposal box and just puts it into the trash. I don't think they bother to identify the kinds of batteries in there and the employees I interacted with could not correctly identify battery type. I do believe strongly in battery and electronic disposal. However, I'm not convinced that all disposal places are created equal. In my area, I will no longer use the hardware stores.
markvdb 4y ago
I just read the EPA recommendation for dealing with old batteries [0]. Shocking quote: "In most communities, alkaline and zinc carbon batteries can be safely put in your household trash." [0] https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries
- bombcar 4y ago
  Those are the little AAA and similar batteries, which don't spontaneously combust like lithium batteries can.
myself248 4y ago
Funny, my dad used to work in the city garage fixing snowplows and garbage trucks, among other things. They had a few incidents of trucks catching on fire, long before the era of lithium batteries. Typically in those days it was someone discarding fireplace ashes that weren't dead-cold and thus contained a smoldering ember. It's surprisingly easy to sweep out such an ember from what appears to be a long-dead fire, but you'll discover the heat if you sift through the ashes with your hand, even casually.
- SECProto 4y ago
  I was recently researching what to do with an empty small butane canister (the kind used for portable gas stoves - same size/shape/wall thickness as a can of spraypaint). According to the municipal waste site for my city of just over 1 million, I can't put it out for any sort of collection, and I can't bring it back to the stores that sell them, I can't even take it to the landfill facility itself! The only option is some once-every-few-months single day events held in random far-flung parts of the city. While I'm responsible enough to hang on to it and dispose of it properly, I expect most people just chuck the empty (or almost-empty) canisters in the trash - causing exactly the same kind of fire risk you're talking about.
- cmrdporcupine 4y ago
  When I first moved to my rural property here I had built a bit of a 'house' for compositing leaves out of strawbales. I swept some ashes from my (I thought) long dead fire from a few days earlier in there. About midnight got a call from a neighbour ("your shed is on fire"). Fire department. Sirens. Two fire trucks. Major embarassment. Kids somehow slept through the whole thing.
  - toss1 4y ago
    Yup I lived in a ski resort town for some times, and the fire chief said that THE most common cause of fires was visitors conscientiously sweeping out the fireplace, putting the (seemingly) dead ashes in a bag, and leaving them out on the porch with trash collection — hours later, the building is on fire...
coryrc 4y ago
> had to dump its payload in the middle of the playground What a bunch of BS "had to". US worships the automobile, so couldn't just dump it in the street, literally dump flaming garbage where kids play instead.

sumy23 4y ago

I've always wondered about this. It seems like it would be quite common that someone would throw away a Li-ion battery. In garbage trucks that compact garbage (all of them?), it would be easy to damage the battery and cause a fire. On the other hand, there might not be a lot of oxygen in the compressed garbage to sustain the fire.

Scoundreller 4y ago
I think standard procedure for garbage trucks is to dump the load over a long area when this happens. There’s probably thermal detectors in the bin that let them know pretty quick that something is up.
dangrossman 4y ago
Lithium battery fires are extra dangerous because they produce their own oxygen, so they do not need an external oxygen source, and can even continue burning when completely submerged in water.

lnsru 4y ago

Almost every shop in Germany has a box for collecting old batteries. There is even one in the office. I happily throw my old batteries there. It’s so easy and convenient.

spathi_fwiffo 4y ago
US has this too, most hardware stores, and some offices. Some people are just lazy or don't know.
- kxyvr 4y ago
  I don't think it's this way everywhere, but I do worry that many of these store disposal options may not work particularly well. A few weeks ago, I had an argument with an employee at Home Depot. I was looking for the battery disposal area and the employee wanted to see what I wanted to deposit. I had a small CR2032 lithium and was told that they don't do the flat ones. That was news to me and my best guess was that the employee was confused about the kind of battery because many of the small batteries are alkaline, which my city has us dispose in the trash. Anyway, eventually management got involved and I was told to just deposit it because they'll throw it away later. After I deposited the battery, the employee opened the box in order to fish it out and the box was full of trash. At best, people were putting large numbers of AAA, AA, C, and D batteries in grocery bags and just throwing them in. Frankly, I think a good amount of it was just plain garbage. The point is that I think that particular Home Depot just takes most of what is in the battery disposal box and just puts it into the trash. I don't think they bother to identify the kinds of batteries in there and the employees I interacted with could not correctly identify battery type. I do believe strongly in battery and electronic disposal. However, I'm not convinced that all disposal places are created equal. In my area, I will no longer use the hardware stores.

markvdb 4y ago

I just read the EPA recommendation for dealing with old batteries [0]. Shocking quote: "In most communities, alkaline and zinc carbon batteries can be safely put in your household trash." [0] https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries https://www.epa.gov/recycle/used-household-batteries

bombcar 4y ago
Those are the little AAA and similar batteries, which don't spontaneously combust like lithium batteries can.

myself248 4y ago

Funny, my dad used to work in the city garage fixing snowplows and garbage trucks, among other things. They had a few incidents of trucks catching on fire, long before the era of lithium batteries. Typically in those days it was someone discarding fireplace ashes that weren't dead-cold and thus contained a smoldering ember. It's surprisingly easy to sweep out such an ember from what appears to be a long-dead fire, but you'll discover the heat if you sift through the ashes with your hand, even casually.

SECProto 4y ago
I was recently researching what to do with an empty small butane canister (the kind used for portable gas stoves - same size/shape/wall thickness as a can of spraypaint). According to the municipal waste site for my city of just over 1 million, I can't put it out for any sort of collection, and I can't bring it back to the stores that sell them, I can't even take it to the landfill facility itself! The only option is some once-every-few-months single day events held in random far-flung parts of the city. While I'm responsible enough to hang on to it and dispose of it properly, I expect most people just chuck the empty (or almost-empty) canisters in the trash - causing exactly the same kind of fire risk you're talking about.
cmrdporcupine 4y ago
When I first moved to my rural property here I had built a bit of a 'house' for compositing leaves out of strawbales. I swept some ashes from my (I thought) long dead fire from a few days earlier in there. About midnight got a call from a neighbour ("your shed is on fire"). Fire department. Sirens. Two fire trucks. Major embarassment. Kids somehow slept through the whole thing.
- toss1 4y ago
  Yup I lived in a ski resort town for some times, and the fire chief said that THE most common cause of fires was visitors conscientiously sweeping out the fireplace, putting the (seemingly) dead ashes in a bag, and leaving them out on the porch with trash collection — hours later, the building is on fire...

coryrc 4y ago

> had to dump its payload in the middle of the playground What a bunch of BS "had to". US worships the automobile, so couldn't just dump it in the street, literally dump flaming garbage where kids play instead.