The fires took place at Household Waste and Recycling Centres in Sleaford, Spalding and Louth, and Lincolnshire said these were caused by flammable materials such as fire lighters and batteries in toys being left in household waste.
The fires were all small and put out quickly but the county council issued a statement highlighting the risks of irresponsibly disposing of such items, as they can ignite when processed.
With three fires at recycling centres across the county this weekend, residents are being reminded to remove batteries from toys and keep gas lighters/flammable liquids out of their general waste.https://t.co/rxtc8sKTFt pic.twitter.com/8Rh52O7KqQ
— Lincs County Council (@LincolnshireCC) December 30, 2019
Warning
John Coates, waste officer at Lincolnshire county council commented: “In the past few days we’ve had fires at Louth, Spalding and Sleaford. One of these was caused by old fire lighting equipment which had been put in a black bin bag in the general waste compactor. Luckily, we spotted it quickly and the fire was extinguished.
“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.”
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