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February 5, 2025 | By Patti Toews and Heidi Sanborn
Hazardous product waste and lithium batteries are causing fires in the waste and recycling system and are endangering lives, destroying expensive infrastructure, and increasing insurance costs. The current situation is unsustainable and unaffordable, and we must do something – not later, but now.
The Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Los Angeles, California, has recorded a “reaction fire” deep in the waste since 2022, driving nearby homeowners to leave due to the fumes. Waste Connections chose to close the facility from accepting any new waste after January 1, 2025 eliminating about 1/3 of available landfill capacity in the region just a week before a series of devastating fires resulting in tons of debris needing disposal.
Fires in trucks and recycling and waste facilities, are more common now than even just a few years ago. In fall of 2024, two long-haul trucks owned by the City of Sunnyvale, CA caught fire. Each filled with 40 tons of trash, the fire was started by something in the waste. In 2016, the Shoreway Recycling facility in San Mateo, CA caught fire. Fortunately, no one was injured, but it took over 8 months and millions of dollars to get the facility operating again. In 2019, a trash truck caught fire in San Bernadino and caused a grass fire that killed two people.
The frequency of fires at all types of materials management facilities requires an urgent response to protect sanitation workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' 2023 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries revealed a rise in the fatality rate for refuse and recyclable materials collectors. With 41 fatalities, the occupation is now the 4th deadliest in the United States, up from 7th in 2021 and 2022.
“First, Stop the Fires” was the call in 2021 from California’s Commission on Recycling Markets and Curbside Recycling chaired by National Stewardship Action Council (NSAC) Director, Heidi Sanborn. The Commission chose to start their report of recommendations to the California legislature with those words. To stop the fires, the Commission offered two recommendations:
1) Adopt an EPR policy for all Household Hazardous Wastes, and
2) Transition from single use 1lb propane gas cylinders to reusables.
The legislature listened, and in 2024 California lawmakers passed SB 1280 by Senator John Laird, which banned the sale of single use cylinders by 2028. A HHW EPR policy was introduced by Senator Ben Allen in 2024, SB 1143. Sponsored by NSAC, SB 1143 was ultimately amended to expand the existing PaintCare stewardship program to cover all paint products and was signed into law by Governor Newsom. That was a huge win having the first PaintCare program in the country expand to cover all their products. Currently, Senator Allen is preparing to reintroduce the HHW EPR bill in 2025. We look forward to continuing discussion on the need for this bill to address the remaining vaping pens, aerosol containers with flammable gas, and pressurized cylinders, and other key materials that are still creating contamination in our system and causing dangerous fires.
NSAC advocates for a responsible, circular economy and we are working with all stakeholders to address this growing crisis and drive Improved Material Management Systems especially on critical earth minerals. We are talking with producers of batteries and battery-containing products, and battery recyclers, to work with us to solve this growing danger. We advocate for truth in labeling and clear public education on the dangers of improper disposal of hazardous materials and batteries, which can play a significant role in preventing incidents.
We have a lot of work to do, and time is running out. Before insurance companies give us the final answer by ceasing to insure our industry’s facilities and vehicles, we must band together and push for us all to “STOP THE FIRES” as urged by the Recycling Commission. We must work together nationally to ensure flammable, combustible, and explosive products are clearly labeled so consumers understand the disposal dangers for the products they purchase and ensure they have convenient and free end of life management options.
If we collectively fail to act, our industry workers and facilities will continue to be at great risk, critical minerals are lost to disposal and jobs are lost in recycling, and both situations demand an urgent response.
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