Used battery fires are happening about 12 times a month from used batteries casually thrown in a bin and ending up at waste facilities.
Council wants residents to dispose of old batteries the right way in the aftermath of the Christmas holidays.
Used household and rechargeable batteries (including lithium ones) can be dropped off at any one of council’s waste facilities.
Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery says batteries are not a simple throwaway item and should be treated as hazardous.
“First and foremost, batteries and waste don’t mix,” he says.
“When thrown into household or recycling bins, they pose serious fire risks during collection and processing which led to more than 200 fires across Queensland in the past year alone.
“In Moreton Bay, our contracted trucks dealt with 17 ‘hot load’ events between November 2023 and November 2025 which resulted in either fire, smoke or chemical incidents,” Flannery says.
“We’ve also seen dangerous spot fires erupt at our waste facilities, which are caused by batteries hiding in general waste being compacted during the landfill process.”
USED BATTERY DISPOSAL
He says batteries need to be taken to one of their waste facilities or a designated drop off point.
To drive this point home, council is running a ‘Don’t Bin your Batteries’ campaign.
“There’s any number of e-scooters, kids’ toys, power tools and phones that contain lithium batteries which can become a ticking time bomb if they are just thrown into your bin,” Flannery says.
“They can spark fires, cause toxic gas emissions and lead to environmental harm.
“With all of our waste facilities now accepting batteries and local disposal points offered throughout Moreton Bay, let’s do the right thing.”
Residents can also take loose batteries to local disposal points such as Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and Bunnings.
Battery terminals should be taped over to prevent sparking prior to disposal.
Click here to learn more about battery disposal locations or visit https://bcycle.com.au/drop-off/
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