The City of Roswell Solid Waste Department is asking local residents to be aware of the danger of throwing away lithium batteries with other trash. When damaged, a lithium battery can ignite and cause other trash around it to catch fire.
Lithium batteries are used to power many electronic items, from cell phones and cameras to toys. When disposing of lithium batteries, they SHOULD NOT BE PLACED with regular household trash that is put out in rollout bins or alley dumpsters for pickup by sanitation trucks. Instead, the batteries SHOULD BE BROUGHT to the municipal landfill (3006 W. Brasher Road) where they can be placed free of charge in a container designated for “household hazardous waste,” which the Solid Waste Department will properly dispose of.
Incidents have occurred recently in which lithium batteries disposed of with regular trash and collected by City of Roswell sanitation trucks have caused fires in the trucks after the trucks have compacted the trash in them, cracking open the unseen batteries. In each case, when the fire was detected, the driver had to quickly find a field or other open and safe area to dump the truck’s load of trash, so the truck would not catch fire, and then extinguish the burning trash and clean it up.
The Solid Waste Department thanks the citizens for their understanding and cooperation in properly disposing of lithium batteries to avoid creating dangerous situations for employees, equipment and the general public. For more information about this topic, the Solid Waste Department can be reached at 575-624-6746.