Ready to upgrade your electronics? Officials say throwing old gadgets away could have fiery consequences

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) – With holiday sales and gift-giving wrapped up, you might be starting the new year with new gadgets.

Fire officials are warning that if you toss certain electronics, tools, or toys in the regular trash, you could be faced with a fiery fiasco. It all comes down to lithium batteries.

“You should never dispose of them in household trash cans or trash cans that you put on the curb,” said Sheldon Collins, the public information officer for the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department.

Collins said throwing lithium batteries in the regular trash can have serious consequences.

“They can catch fire if they’re damaged if they’re overcharged, if they’re stored in areas that are not room temperature,” Collins said.

TFRD has even started training on electric car fires, which can be caused by lithium batteries inside.

“It’s changed the way that we’ve trained but we are getting a lot of information about how we deal with these batteries,” Collins said.

Waste management companies say garbage trucks can even catch fire if a trash compactor crushes a lithium battery. That’s what one company believes almost happened to one of their vehicles last month after the trash inside a garbage truck caught fire.

Collins said these delicate batteries are in more items than you would think.

“They are mostly in electronics, things that we wear every day like headphones,” Collins said. “Computers, laptops, they can be in some toys, they’re in some cars also, and handheld power tools.”

If you are not sure whether something contains a lithium battery, Collins said to check the packaging. There may be a marking indicating that the product uses lithium batteries.

“You have to dispose of those properly,” Collins said.

If not the household trash, where do they go? Well, Collins said there are special facilities that can recycle these batteries. Some local hardware and battery stores have drop-off boxes for lithium battery recycling.

Websites like Earth 911 and Call2Recycle can pinpoint battery recycling locations near you.

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