![\"Waste](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4LU039X_copyright_image_290570.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nWaste Management NZ thinks a recent landfill blaze could have been caused by a lithium battery.
\nPhoto: Waste Management\n<\/p>\n
A major waste company is calling on more retailers to take back used batteries as it investigates whether one is to blame for a landfill blaze<\/a> that lasted several hours.<\/p>\n Several fire crews responded to the fire at the Tirohia Landfill and Energy Park<\/a> near Paeroa at about 11.30am on Wednesday.<\/p>\n WM (Waste Management) New Zealand thinks it could have been a lithium battery.<\/p>\n “We have a big compactor that operates on the site that crushes down the waste that obviously went over something that caused a fire to break out in the waste pile,” managing direct Evan Maehl said.<\/p>\n “The waste pale is not large, we only have a small footprint open each day but the fire then took hold because there was a lot of flammable materials that it could jump onto,” he said.<\/p>\n The company has had people on watch overnight in case there were any hot spots that reignited.<\/p>\n “It probably burned for about four or four-and-a-half hours, it was not out of control at any stage but there was obviously smoke and it was visible,” he said.<\/p>\n “It was one of those things that we are unfortunately well drilled in.”<\/p>\n The company said it may have been a gas canister, but that similar fires had been caused by lithium batteries.<\/p>\n Maehl said there had been 20 confirmed battery fires across WM New Zealand’s sites over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n “Ten at our landfills, six on trucks which is quite scary and four in our transfer stations,” he said.<\/p>\n Maehl said a recent example was on an Auckland motorway<\/a> last month on a truck the company runs for Auckland Council.<\/p>\n “We had to eject its load on the southwestern motorway because the driver spotted flames and smoke, so that was in a recycling truck heading to a recycling facility so it could have been a much worse result had it got to the recycling centre and it was dropped off there,” Maehl said.<\/p>\n The message, he said, was to keep the batteries out of household rubbish and recycling.<\/p>\n It was here that retailers had “skin in the game”, he said.<\/p>\n “It’d be great if they could jump on board and take them back so they could be segregated in their own special waste stream so they can be looked after.<\/p>\n “I’ve seen, like at Bunnings, they’ve got a take-back bin right outside the front door when I was there on the weekend,” he said.<\/p>\n Maehl acknowledged simply throwing the batteries away was convenient for people.<\/p>\n “But there could be downstream consequences too, like a recycling truck – and they’re [worth] half a million dollars each, or much worse would be a transfer station or recycling station,” he said.<\/p>\n “We’ve had two in the last year, we’ve had two recycling centres that burnt which is a big impact on the infrastructure of a city or a town.”<\/p>\n What’s the problem with lithium batteries?<\/p>\n Maehl said the issue was when the outer shell of a battery cracked and they were exposed to the air.<\/p>\n “You could Google it or Youtube it and you can see how quickly they react with oxygen,” he said.<\/p>\n “They ignite really quickly to a very high flash point.”<\/p>\n The problem was then compounded if they were surrounded by the likes of cardboard, paper or plastic.<\/p>\n “If there’s material around them then that will carry on the fire,” Maehl said.<\/p>\n His company had put flame and heat detection equipment in its trucks so loads could be ejected quickly if a fire erupted.<\/p>\n “It’s the same in all of our transfer stations and recycling facilities, we’ve now got flame detection cameras and heat detection cameras,” he said.<\/p>\n “Because sometimes they smoulder away under a pile of cardboard, you can’t see it.”<\/p>\n “This wasn’t really a thing if you go back 15 years ago when I started in the industry, but it is now.”<\/p>\n