The safety campaign is designed to alert people to the dangers posed by vehicle and facility fires and will be delivered by the council in partnership with Veolia, a provider of ‘essential recycling, waste collection and treatment services’ across Shropshire.

In a statement yesterday, the council confirmed that roughly one preventable fire occurs every day throughout the UK, endangering waste collection staff and residents, as well as damaging ‘vital recycling infrastructure’.

With the fires taking place in waste management facilities, residential areas, and refuse vehicles, the council has emphasised that residents must avoid putting dangerous items such as vapes, electrical items, batteries, or gas canisters in their rubbish or recycling bins and on-street litter bins, explaining that they are ‘extremely flammable when crushed’.

Among the incidents to have transpired in Shropshire during recent months are a battery-fuelled fire at Shrewsbury Household Recycling Centre (HRC) and a bin lorry explosion in Shifnal following the disposal of a fire extinguisher in a waste bin.

According to the local authority, the campaign material will be shared across social media and on collection vehicles, with the digital campaign including footage of fires and highlighting ‘the danger of four items that are commonly misplaced in household bins’.

The council has also reminded residents that used vapes, electrical items, gas bottles and nitrous oxide (Nox) canisters should be disposed of at HRCs, whereas batteries should be recycled through the kerbside recycling service.

Jeff Sears, Regional Director, Treatment West at Veolia, said: ‘In Shropshire, we pride ourselves on carrying out essential services whilst putting safety first in the workplace, and we do not accept our people or the communities we serve being put in danger.

‘This campaign aims to educate residents on how to ensure their waste is safe, and we ask everyone to make these simple changes that will greatly decrease the chance of fires in our collection vehicles and local sorting facilities.’

David Vasmer, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for highways and environment, said: ‘The dangers of putting batteries, gas canisters, vapes and electrical items out with the general waste or recycling are very real and is something that puts collection crews at risk of injury.

‘It’s great that our residents want to recycle but we ask them to take extra care by making sure they do not put such items out for collection.’

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