Whanganui District Council works to minimise battery fire risk at recycling centre

Fire and Emergency NZ crews responding to a fire in the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre's baling shed in 2023. Photo / NZME

Whanganui District Council is taking extra precautions to minimise fire risks at its recycling centre after two blazes in three years.

In 2023, a fire in OJI Fibre Solutions’ baling facility meant the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre (WRRC) was unable to accept plastics for more than a month.

There was another fire last November, again in the baling facility.

Both were believed to have been caused by lithium batteries that had contaminated other recyclable materials.

A report from council health, safety and wellbeing manager Olivia McQuillan said OJI Fibre had exited its lease after the latest fire, with the council assuming direct operational control of baling in December.

The council took over operations of the WRRC from the centre’s trust in June 2024, coinciding with the launch of the kerbside recycling service.

Waste manager Morgan Harrison told the council’s risk and assurance committee this month that additional staff would be sought to manage contamination.

“The biggest issue we have is the awareness in the public, but also the contamination people are putting in the other recycling slots,” she said.

“Staff are constantly monitoring those and picking out batteries from those bins.”

Before the council took over WRRC, only alkaline batteries were accepted and were stored in buckets, she said.

Whanganui District Council waste manager Morgan Harrison. Photo / Mike Tweed

“That was probably the least safe practice you could do for batteries.

“Since then, we’ve been working with a recycling agency that has provided us with a specialised unit with heat monitoring and a 24/7 alarm system in it.

“They have also provided us with fire-retardant bags which enable us to increase the range of batteries to different chemistries, including lithium-ion.”

All batteries brought to the centre now had to have their terminals taped, removing the chance of “unwanted shorting”, Harrison said.

Auckland Council has recorded at least 35 battery-related fires across its rubbish trucks and recycling facilities since the start of last year, including an incident in Lynfield that required a truck to dump its burning load on the street.

Waste Management New Zealand, which operates a kerbside waste collection in Whanganui, recorded 75 battery-related fires nationally across vehicles and facilities in the past 12 months.

Harrison said WasteMinz, the country’s main waste and resource recovery industry body, had established a battery working group comprised of councils, retailers, recyclers and waste operators.

“They are trying to understand the broader issue of batteries; how we are managing it from a health and safety perspective and risk assessment.

“There is also a really big push to central Government to progress batteries as a priority product for stewardship.”

WRRC’s battery unit had been installed away from other essential assets at the centre, she said.

“It is manufactured specifically to encapsulate fire and suppress it.

“We have a frequent collection as well. We are not storing large amounts on site.”

Lithium batteries are collected from WRRC by Phoenix Metalman Recycling and exported to specialised recycling facilities overseas.

McQuillan’s report said the fires at WRRC did not indicate unsafe behaviour or inadequate site management.

“They reflect a systemic change in the waste stream.

“Lithium batteries are increasingly present in household recycling despite public guidance, creating an emerging and evolving hazard profile across the waste industry.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present, his focus is local government, primarily Whanganui District Council.