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Improper Battery Disposal Is a Dumpster Fire (Literally)

Lithium-ion batteries combust on contact with water or oxygen — and their presence in Lane County landfills are only increasing.

By Fern Dimick

How many rechargeable devices do you own? A laptop, a phone? Maybe even an electric toothbrush? What will you do when they break?

Your knee jerk reaction may be to just throw it away — but doing so can have dire consequences.

Rechargeable devices made within the past 20 years contain lithium-ion batteries. Lithium is a highly reactive element, and if exposed to oxygen or water, the battery will burst into flames.

The Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington states that the first commercial use of li-ion batteries was in 1991 and has since become the predominant type of battery used in electric vehicles and rechargeable devices.

According to Waste Reduction Specialist Maya Buelow, fires caused by lithium-ion batteries doubled in Lane County at Short Mountain Landfill from 2018 to 2023. Despite multiple options to dispose of these batteries safely, they are being tossed into facilities that aren’t designed to process them such as landfills — increasing the chances of combustion.

Buelow insists that a lack of education is a major player in this issue. “Especially in the last 10 [to] 20 years, the battery chemistries have changed a lot,” Buelow adds. “So education and knowledge in the general public around what to do with each of those battery chemistries is just not caught up.”

According to electrochemist Matthias Agne, li-ion batteries have one side with lithium (held together by graphite) and the other with a conductive rock (like nickel or cobalt). This provides the electrons needed for a chemical reaction — giving the battery its power.