Concerns about fires caused by the public not removing batteries from toys and other household items have already been raised this year.

Early in January Lincolnshire County Council issued a warning over batteries following three small fires at its household waste recycling centres in rubbish deposited by members of the public after Christmas.

Pictured is a toy which still contained batteries at a Lincolnshire site

The fires took place at sites in  Sleaford, Spalding and Louth, and Lincolnshire said the incidents were caused by flammable materials such as fire lighters and batteries in toys being left in household waste.

Controllers

Lincolnshire’s waste officer, John Coates, said in a message to the county’s residents: “If you have flammable liquid, lighters or gas please just let us know, we will put these in a separate area. Please also take a few minutes to take out batteries from games controllers, toys, TV remotes, mobile phones etc. We have a separate collection for these at all of our recycling centres. These are highly flammable if they end up in the compactors.”

Problems with batteries causing fires in the household waste stream were numerous during 2019, with some council refuse collection vehicles catching fire.