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After Dennis Bagley, Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA) executive director confirmed the March 2 fire at the regional landfill was caused by lithium-ion batteries, he and other members of the SPSA team shared the dangers lithium batteries pose when not disposed of properly.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, lithium-ion batteries should not be placed in trash or recycling bins because they could ignite. Instead, the batteries should be brought to specific disposal sites such as the landfill’s household hazardous waste (HHW).

The HHW program also hosts multiple events throughout the year at different locations so people can drop off their hazardous and e-waste.

Six events are currently planned: April 5 at Norfolk Azalea Baptist Church, April 12 at Western Branch High School in Chesapeake and in Suffolk at 800 Carolina Road, June 28 in Suffolk with a to-be-determined location, Oct. 1 in Chesapeake at Sentara College and Health Sciences, and Nov. 15 in Suffolk at 800 Carolina Road.

Before disposal, battery ends and terminals should be taped to prevent accidental discharges and possible fires. 

Bagley said last year, the landfill’s HHW and e-waste program took in 35 nine-gallon buckets for the region, totaling 2,353 pounds of material. This consists of cleaning and home products, pesticides, automotive products, paint and workshop supplies, flammable products, mercury, and batteries. E-waste includes air conditioners, electronic appliances, small household appliances, software, Wi-Fi equipment, and other similar products. 

A large percentage of waste that goes through this program is lithium-ion batteries, which are found in most rechargeable devices such as phones, laptops, vacuums, power tools, and car batteries.

At $6.50 per pound of (HHW) and e-waste material, the landfill paid over $15,000 to dispose of it last year.

Bagley said 2,353 pounds of lithium batteries for the entire region is a very low number. 

“It’s clearly a problem that people are not taking on and disposing of them where they’re supposed to,” he said.

Henry Strickland, SPSA director of operations, said a lot of house fires are also caused by lithium batteries because a small crack in the battery can cause it to combust. 

In a landfill, a trash compactor can easily break the batteries, and a fire can start with just a little bit of heat, fuel, and oxygen.

Not only does the fire itself pose major problems, but Bagley said the fires often happen in the middle of the night after the broken batteries have been heating up during the day.

“We got equipment to deal with it, but getting up at three o’clock in the morning, coming to the landfill to fight a fire for 12 hours is not what people want to do,” he said.

Strickland said that the only way to put out a landfill fire is to smother it with dirt and compact it to cut off the supply of oxygen. He added that the March 2 fire covered between five and 10 acres and took about 12 to 14 hours to extinguish.

Bagley said they do sort through the waste that comes in to search for lithium batteries and anything else such as HHW and medical waste that can’t go in the landfill, but it’s almost impossible to pick out any batteries.

“The likelihood of you seeing it and being able to get it out is slim to none,” he said.

Strickland thinks a lack of education surrounding lithium batteries is why they are often disposed of improperly. That burden should be placed on the manufacturer, he said.

This idea is called extended producer responsibility (EPR), which would make producers financially or physically responsible for managing their products for its entire lifespan, including disposal.

Bagley said he’s not as optimistic as Strickland is.

“I think that humans are lazy,” he said. “And it’s easier for them to throw it in a trash can, and then it becomes somebody else’s problem.”

After the fire, SPSA published a public notice on their website about what types of batteries should not be thrown away with regular trash and where they should be taken to be disposed of properly.