SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Just a few days after Christmas in the middle of the night at the Seminole County Solid Waste Transfer Station in Longwood, a fire started deep inside a trash trailer and slowly started to spread. Eventually four trailers were engulfed and burned to a crisp over three hours.
10% of Seminole County’s waste hauling capability and almost a half million taxpayer dollars went up in smoke in one night.
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Hector Valle, Seminole County Environmental Services Program Manager, said it’s the fourth trash fire at the Transfer Station in three years.
Valle, and Seminole County Fire Marshal and Assistant Fire Chief Christina Diaz, said they believe lithium batteries are starting the fires - but how?
“I wouldn’t say that you should worry about batteries in general, I would just say that proper use of it, proper charging and proper disposal should be looked at,” Diaz said.
Diaz said cell phone batteries are generally safe, as are most quality lithium batteries that come in most name-brand devices. It’s the handling that can make them unsafe.
Never throw them into the trash - the compactors puncture and squeeze the lithium batteries along with everything else, greatly raising the risk of a fire.
That’s why Diaz and Valle are urging people to bring their old lithium batteries to the Transfer Station which has a dedicated drop-off area.
Workers will safely bag up the batteries and send them to the recycler.
Recyclers melt the batteries to filter and sort the elements inside.
Jeremy Davis, Hazardous Waste Program Coordinator with Seminole County Solid Waste, said the Transfer Station at 1950 State Road 419, Longwood, FL 32750 is open six days per week, 10 hours per day.
You can call Jeremy at 407-665-2250 with any questions about lithium batteries.
There are other options for recycling if you’d rather not visit the Transfer Station.
Stores such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Staples, Batteries Plus, Best Buy and many others accept lithium batteries.
Search for a drop-off location near you here.
Regular alkaline batteries (AA’s, AAA’s, C’s and D’s) cannot be recycled and can be thrown in the trash. Car batteries should be recycled.
Diaz also strongly recommends not using aftermarket cords and chargers with your devices.
Instead, use cords and chargers that come with your device because they’ve been tested to be safe and they won’t overcharge your device, which can also cause a lithium battery to catch fire.
Cell phones are not known to catch fire if they’re charged properly. Diaz recommends charging your device in the morning or at night but not overnight and especially if you’re not in the same room with it.
You can find more information about lithium batteries here.
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