Over the past few years, the waste industry has been plagued by fires thought to be caused by batteries that have found their way into the material stream, either inadvertently through a lack of knowledge or because they have been deliberately concealed. 

Recognising the issue, BMRA sits on an ESA/WISH Batteries group that has been charged with finding ways to tackle the problem, including developing a public-facing campaign to educate householders.

However, to better understand the scale of the problem, we are asking operators to share information about the waste fires they have had on their sites. The data collected will be strictly confidential and only Antonia will see the data you share. She will then collate all at the answers to share with the Batteries group. 

While we appreciate many members will be occupied with issues surrounding COVID-19, collating this data will be an important step towards identifying the ways in which batteries are entering the waste stream, be they lithium ion, lithium, lead acid, or nickel-cadmium/nickel zinc, etc.

With this in mind, we would encourage members to fill in the form below and return in to Antonia ([email protected]) by the end of June.