気ままなリライト２４

充電池の火災・発煙1万件　ごみ混入、処理施設に損害

While enjoying a smartphone-obsessed lifestyle, many smartphone users are staying ignorant or playing dumb about the safety hazard of lithium-ion batteries for mobile phones when those batteries are disposed of in the same process as other incombustible household waste collected by municipality-run garbage trucks. Increasing cases of explosions and fires are coming from flammable electrolytes leaking from damaged batteries disposed of as waste. Many digital-savvy residents are less likely to imagine how much it costs to pay the price when disused handheld electronics containing lithium-ion batteries are not sorted out as recycling waste or waste without the ticket to garbage dumping sites.
 
In many municipalities, garbage collectors have played the role of volunteer firefighters unwillingly. According to a survey by the Ministry of the Environment, 255 out of 1,734 municipalities as the respondents said they spotted smokes or sparks and fire from disposed batteries in fiscal 2020. The total 11,174 cases of fire outbreaks were recorded in fiscal 2020, with an increase of 3,500 cases year-on-year. The fire outbreaks occurred in waste dismantling facilities and in the containers of garbage trucks. In most cases, fire-extinguishing activities were done by garbage collectors. In some cases, firefighters were dispatched from the fire department. According to the answers from the 255 municipalities, a mobile battery topped the list of the fire source, followed by a heated tobacco product, a cordless vacuum, a smartphone and an electric shaver. 273 other municipalities cited mobile batteries as unproven sources of fire.
 
Some municipalities have suffered a huge loss of money due to a lack of discipline among local residents. An environmental conservation organization run by four municipalities in the western part of Saitama Prefecture lost more than 200 million yen to replace with new equipment after the old equipment in the non-flammable waste disposal facility was reduced to ashes in October 2021. A fire coming from the inside of a garbage truck cost Shizuoka City 4.6 million yen for repair in June 2019.