The Scottish Fire and Rescue service attended the site, and the centre was reopened later that same day.
The council said that the fire resulted in damage to the electricals container and “the loss of valuable electrical items for recycling”.
Environment and sustainability head of service Ewan Wallace said: “All recycling taken to our household recycling centres is greatly appreciated. However, when it comes to electricals, please remove any batteries wherever possible and recycle them separately to ensure the safety of our staff and facilities.”
The council said that it believes the fire was caused after electricals containing batteries were thrown into the electricals collection container.
Reusable electricals can be donated directly to a charity or through a reuse container located in Banchory, Ellon, Laurencekirk, Macduff, Stonehaven, Portlethen or Peterhead household recycling centres.
Electricals that are not suitable for reuse must have their batteries removed before being placed in the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) containers at any Aberdeenshire recycling centres or at Port Elphinstone’s Davidson Park and at Insch’s leisure centre car park.
In Aberdeenshire, batteries can be recycled separately from other electrical waste at all household recycling centres. The batteries can also be recycled through weekly kerbside collections using freely available pink battery bags.
The bags can be collected from local household recycling centres, libraries and service points.
The council added that the pink bags should not be used to dispose of vapes. Specialised drums are available at all household recycling centres across Aberdeenshire to safely store vapes or e-cigarettes before they are transported to Veolia in Portsmouth for recycling, where 94% of all the materials inside them can be recovered.
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