A forgotten battery or battery can come to life as a zombie.
A zombie battery can cause a fire hazard. Adobe Stock / AOP
Battery recycling says in its press release that last year Finns recycled a record two million kilos of batteries and accumulators. Nevertheless, batteries end up in mixed waste or rotate in the corners of homes, which can cause a fire hazard.
In the last eight months, 12 alarm tasks caused by improperly handled batteries and accumulators have been registered. Battery recycling calls such batteries and accumulators zombie batteries. The number of cases has clearly increased compared to before.
– Fires caused by zombie batteries have usually increased towards the summer, when cabinets are emptied during spring cleaning and batteries are handled carelessly or thrown into mixed waste, for example. Batteries and accumulators should definitely be cleaned in the corners, but it is important to take them to the collection provided for them, says Liisa-Marie Stenbäck In the battery recycling bulletin.
A dangerous situation usually occurs at home when batteries are stored in boxes, for example, without taping their power terminals. Another typical fire caused by a battery or accumulator occurs at a treatment plant when batteries and accumulators are thrown in the wrong waste and end up in a crusher.
According to battery recycling, near-board situations caused by batteries and accumulators at cardboard and cardboard processing plants have occurred even weekly during the first half of the year.
Battery recycling is a reminder that batteries and accumulators can be recycled at municipal outlets and at hazardous waste recycling points.
Remember these instructions
Battery recycling put together instructions on how to use old batteries and accumulators to avoid fires.
- Collect the forgotten used batteries in the cabinet and remove the batteries from the recyclable devices. If you do not remove the battery, you can return it with the device.
- Do not re-use a lithium-ion battery that has not been used for a long time carelessly, as it may turn into a zombie when it is charged.
- Cover the power terminals of discarded batteries with battery tape. There is always a small amount of electricity left in the batteries, which can discharge as a short circuit if the power terminals hit metal or each other. It is easy to prevent a short circuit by protecting the power terminals with tape.
- Return to the nearest collection point, ie the nearest shop selling batteries and accumulators. However, stores do not collect large lithium-ion batteries, which are used in electric bicycles, for example. You can find their collection points kierratys.infosearch service.