Wanganui is a district capital at the southern tip of New Zealand’s North Island, and home to some 50,000 residents. The town enjoys a pleasant temperate climate, although the river running through it can be prone to flooding. A fire broke out at the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre on December 1, 2023, disrupting the recycling program. Investigation reveals this was another careless battery fire that might easily have been avoided.
How a Careless Person Caused a Battery Fire
The Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre recycles a wide range of different consumer, and light industrial products. If it can’t accept a particular item, then it will provide an alternative solution in the area.
However, when we visited the recycling center website on December 5, 2023, a banner across the page read, “Due to the fire on site 1/12/23, the center is closed until further notice. Please refrain from dumping in the front of the center”.
The New Zealand Herald published a news update on December 4, 2023, three days after the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre fire. They made it quite clear they believed a wrongly disposed of battery lead to a thoughtless battery fire, that was so unnecessary.
Careless Disposal of a Flammable Item
The resource center’s immediate response was to close all its deposit boxes, while they investigated the fire. The Whanganui Fire Station manager, Shane Dudley suspected an incorrectly recycled product, and asked a subject specialist to investigate.
The investigation determined that a lithium battery entered the crushing plant at a division producing packaging from pulp, paper and wood fiber. They surmise the crushed battery caught fire, and that this spread to other flammable material surrounding it.
Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre is over 8,500 miles distant from Washington DC. We wrote this post to ask people right across the planet not to place lithium-ion batteries in their trash. Please tape over the terminals, and dispose of them as directed at official recycling points.
More Information
How Lead-Acid Battery Recycling Succeeds
Avoid a Lithium-Ion Battery Fire – Here’s How
Preview Image: Whanganui Recycling Centre in Google Earth
