Why batteries in our bins are a burning issue

When a waste recycling facility in Buckinghamshire caught fire last March, it was immediately clear there would be an impact. Six crews fought the fire at Bletchley, Milton Keynes, which ruined a building costing more than £1m, and some recycling collections were temporarily suspended. But no-one was surprised by the suspected cause of the fire. Discarded batteries are thought to cause several fires a day at waste facilities or in rubbish trucks across the UK. This Bletchley facility was only being used to store recycling because another building, near Bedford, usually used by Central Bedfordshire Council, had been destroyed by an earlier suspected battery fire. So how exactly are these fires starting, what are the potential risks and costs, and what can be done to prevent them? Contractor Veolia, which runs the Elstow Waste Transfer Station in Bedfordshire, where there was a fire last July, said across its sites and vehicles there were 370 fires in 2025 in which a battery was the suspected cause. The latest industry-wide figures from the Environmental Services Association show there were 1,200 battery-related fires in 2023-24, a 71% rise on the previous year. The organisation said