Fires at waste facilities are becoming a daily occurrence. At the end of April, a fire broke out at a waste sorting facility in the Vilnius region, operated by the company Energesman. Less than two weeks after this incident, a blaze erupted at one of Lithuania’s most technologically advanced plants, the Kaunas CHP plant. Waste managers are unanimous: The situation is already critical and will only get worse unless a more efficient solution is found for the waste management of portable devices with lithium-ion batteries.

These fires show that improper sorting of hazardous waste, especially lithium-ion batteries and portable accumulators, and their entry into industrial and municipal waste streams are increasingly causing environmentally hazardous fires. This is one of the leading causes of incendiary outbreaks in waste facilities. Irresponsibly discarded lithium-ion batteries or devices containing them are ever more causing fires at waste sorting, recycling plants, and even vehicles transporting waste in traffic.

“In the case of both Energesman’s facility and Kaunas CHP plant, we avoided a major disaster, but the damage has been done: Harmful fumes have spread to residential areas, potentially polluting the environment, damaging plant equipment and buildings, and disrupting the entire waste management system in both the Vilnius and Kaunas Regions. Although law enforcement authorities have launched investigations into possible deliberate actions, the waste management community is convinced that the fires have been caused by irresponsible waste sorting,” says Marius Busilas, Director of the Association of Hazardous Waste Managers (PATVA).

Under current legislation, hazardous waste, such as primary cells, batteries, portable accumulators, consumer electronics, paints, thinners, and chemical cleaners, cannot be discarded in household waste containers. However, the reality is different, and many people still lack the information or more convenient infrastructure to dispose of this waste properly.

Is Lithuania Facing a Waste Crisis?

Appliances with permanently incorporated batteries are often thrown into waste bins and discarded into household or packaging containers. E-cigarettes and mobile phone batteries are frequently found in primary cell collection boxes. Electric vehicle batteries are delivered by companies and hidden among other waste, such as lead-acid accumulators. Particularly hazardous lithium-ion batteries can cause fires if they end up in waste collection and sorting facilities. In the waste stream, they are compressed and damaged, producing sparks and turning into significant fire hazards.

Such fires put waste management plants at a standstill, eventually causing an inevitable nationwide waste crisis.

Vitoldas Sapožnikovas, the CEO of the hazardous waste management company Žalvaris, which suffered a fire three years ago, says that without decisive action, there will soon be no waste managers in Lithuania who have evaded a fire-related disaster.

“The successive fires in waste management plants show that this is no longer a coincidence or a consequence of non-compliance with waste storage and handling rules. Portable battery-powered devices increasingly end up in the common stream of household and other waste and explode in contact with other waste at waste storage sites or during the handling process, causing widespread fires. In this situation, we are all dealing with the consequences: We extinguish the fire, businesses invest and proactively implement fire prevention measures, the authorities inspect waste managers, but the root cause of the problem is not being solved,” says Mr Sapožnikovas, the CEO of Žalvaris.

According to him, there is no separate infrastructure for collecting portable electronics, so the existing infrastructure needs to be used more efficiently and strengthened. Lithuania has had a well-established system of collecting primary cells for many years, with more than 20,000 special collection boxes installed at institutions and businesses nationwide. Devices containing lithium-ion batteries account for around 20% of the total amount of batteries collected in these boxes.

“The collection of primary cells in Lithuania has been successfully challenged and implemented. Meanwhile, portable devices with built-in lithium-ion batteries are not collected and managed separately, as there are neither national waste management targets for these devices nor environmental pollution fees. As long as the management of this waste is not subject to taxation, and producers and importers are not obliged to take care of it, it becomes the sole responsibility of waste managers. Both in terms of handling these appliances, which we are doing at our own expense, and in terms of the consequences of the fires caused by the batteries,” says Mr Sapožnikovas.

Moving Backwards: Replacing Environmental Pollution Fees with Safeguards

The latest EU regulation on batteries and their waste, which entered into force on 18 February 2024, replaced the previous Directive 2006/66/EC and introduced stricter requirements for the entire life cycle of batteries, from production to waste management. In addition to setting higher collection and recycling targets for batteries, it also provides for extended producer responsibility. Producers must ensure that the batteries they supply meet the new requirements, including using recycled materials and waste management.

In Lithuania, legislative amendments are being prepared to implement the new regulation. The changes planned by the Ministry of the Environment would dismantle the existing battery collection system, scrap the existing targets, and abolish the environmental pollution fees for producers and importers. Although these measures can be directly aligned with the objectives of the said directive and EU law, the Ministry of the Environment is reluctant to take into account the arguments of waste managers with long experience in improving the existing system of collection and handling of batteries, increasing its efficiency, and incapacity of the safeguards to be applied.

Marius Busilas, the Director of PATVA, points out that implementing the regulation at the national level should encompass, strengthen and extend the system already in place and should not be seen only from the perspective of the imposition of safeguards and penalties.

“Targets for producers and an environmental pollution fee would be an effective tool to collect more electronics. Fining the entry of a lithium-ion battery in the common household waste stream will not solve the problem of battery collection,” says Mr Busilas.

According to him, although Lithuania has a well-developed battery waste collection network, the existing collection rate is still relatively low. Waste portable batteries have no economic value, are expensive to collect, and are in no demand in the grey market; therefore, a significant proportion of portable battery appliances end up illegally in the household waste stream due to a lack of consumer awareness.

The representative of Žalvaris echoes Mr Busilas: “Changing the well-functioning environmental pollution fee regime could mean that even the collection system for primary cells would lose its funding and would no longer be worth maintaining. In this case, 20% of waste lithium batteries will enter the household waste stream. In my view, the responsibility of producers and importers should be extended to include built-in lithium batteries. This will allow more investment in collecting and managing such waste, which will directly impact the reduction of fires,” Mr Sapožnikovas states.

Extinguishing Lithium-Caused Fires Requires Different Means 

Martynas Matulevičius, the Head of the National Fire Protection Association, says that lithium-ion battery-caused fires generate temperatures well above 1,0000C (operating temperatures of 1,200–16000C, with a maximum of 2,5000C) and do not require oxygen to ignite. Our firefighters have had to deal with such fires recently. Still, they are unprepared: They lack the tools, such as special foaming substances and fire-resistant blankets.

“I’ve been talking about lithium-ion batteries as a new type of fire hazard since 2021. Now, the number of battery-powered electrical appliances in use has increased by tens, if not hundreds, of times. That is why I am not surprised by the increasing number of fires related to energy storage devices. The only surprising thing is that, as a modern, educated society, we cannot dispose of used electrical equipment with batteries in the designated places, using special containers,” says Mr Matulevičius.

He stresses that premises where batteries, energy storage devices or electrical appliances with batteries are stored must have a special fire extinguisher or a fire-resistant covering (non-combustible cloth) specifically designed for this type of fire.