Carson City Landfill fires mostly due to trashed rechargeable batteries, but prevention proves to be a challenge

In recent years, there have been numerous fires at the Carson City Landfill, located on the hillside that divides Carson City and Mound House off Highway 50 and Flint Drive.

The root cause of the majority of these fires, according to Rick Cooley, Operations Manager of the Public Works Department, are rechargeable batteries.

"To the best of our knowledge, the primary source of our landfill fires over the last several years has been lithium-ion batteries that are being discarded in the trash," said Cooley. "When people throw away their rechargeable batteries, such as cordless tools, remote control devices, drones, etc., or devices with rechargeable batteries such as laptops, phones, cameras, etc., they seem harmless. However, when the trash is moved and compacted these batteries get crushed which creates a short circuit and causes the batteries to overheat and/or explode."

According to Cooley, once the overheating process starts, it can take anywhere from minutes to hours before enough heat is generated to ignite something, or explode and start a fire.

For example, the recent fire that occured at the landfill on Sept. 7 was caught on surveillance camera, where smoke was visible beginning at around 7:40 p.m.; however, it wasn't until around 8:30 p.m. that flames began to erupt.

One issue that the landfill faces is simply the fact that the majority of people don't know the hazards that come from throwing away devices with rechargeable batteries.

"So far we have been trying to educate our customers who physically visit the landfill not to dump batteries and we have added signage at the landfill stating not to dump batteries," said Cooley. "Some people take this seriously and will ask the attendant where they can drop off their batteries and we will have them set them aside near the scale house for us to safely dispose of them."

For individuals who do not take their garbage directly to the dump, however, having an option to dispose safely of their lithium batteries can sometimes be an issue.

According to Cooley, some hardware stores have taken used rechargeable batteries in the past, such as Lowe's and Home Depot; however, Lowe's no longer will collect them from the public. Batteries Plus in Carson City will take most batteries, but they do charge a fee, according to Cooley.

However, there is one newer business in Carson City that has formed around recycling lithium batteries, which is Redwood Materials, Inc., which was created by a co-founder of Tesla, and opened a plant in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center.

Rechargeable batteries can be dropped off or sent directly to Redwood Materials, Inc. for recycling at:

Redwood Materials
Attn: Consumer Recycle Program
2401 Conestoga Dr.
Carson City, NV 89706

You can learn more about Redwood Materials, Inc. through our previous reporting here.

Public Works has also been working with Waste Management to increase awareness to its customers regarding the dangers of rechargeable batteries.

"This issue is not only an issue for the landfill, but also for Waste Management and other trash haulers when they compact waste with their trucks which also causes fires," said Cooley. "On the prevention side, our operators are more vigilant about looking for batteries and signs of fire."

Over the years, landfill operators have found several batteries that were beginning to overheat and smoke, but they were able to remove them prior to an actual fire breaking out.

"The city also built a custom trailer with a thermal imaging and surveillance camera on it to look for heat signatures in the trash which will send email and text notifications to several Public Works employees and dispatch to alert us to an issue," said Cooley.

The city is also in the process of building a new scale facility at the landfill, which will include thermal imaging cameras to scan loads as they cross the scale in order to locate heat signatures in incoming loads, according to Cooley.

While there have been many fires at the landfill over the years, there are safety mechanisms in place to keep the fires from spreading to nearby hills and, importantly, nearby communities.

For example, the active fill areas within the landfill are kept clear of vegetation and are routinely covered with soil, which keeps the fire-prone areas separated from the surrounding hills, as well as separated from other areas of the landfill.

Landfill fires are a global issue, said Cooley, and while there is no one-size-fits-all solution, Public Works, the city and the Fire Department are consistently discussing new ways to prevent and mitigate fires.

A major issue in fighting these fires is due to the fact that what is burning is oftentimes unknown, which could be hazardous for workers and firefighters who are breathing in fumes.

"There is always a concern of not knowing what people are putting in their trash and, when it catches fire, what is actually burning," said Cooley. "As Public Works and the Fire Department fight these landfill fires, we work to keep the staff out of direct smoke and attack the fire from up wind, which helps with keeping staff from directly breathing whatever might be burning."

During the most recent fire, said Cooley, there was no breeze which led to smoke settling into the area they were pushing debris to. In response, they pulled the equipment from the effected area and fought the fire from another direction until conditions were favorable to return to this area.

"Oftentimes we will need to move resources around in response to the shifting winds during a fire," said Cooley. "The cabins of our equipment are enclosed and have air filtration systems, which helps some, but without knowing what is burning, you do not know what to filter for."

For standard, alkaline (non-rechargeable) batteries, Cooley said it is safe to throw them in the trash when they are finished, so long as there are no alternative ways to recycle them.