Soaring number of fires at recycling centres blamed on vape batteries

Over ten fires are breaking out at recycling centres across the UK each week due to lithium batteries from devices such as vapes being carelessly disposed of, according to new research.

Industry insiders estimate the rate of the battery fires is costing the UK economy around £1 billion a year, with concerns that workers’ lives are being put at risk.

Data from the Environment Services Association (ESA), which represents waste management companies, says its members reported 1,518 fires in the year to March 2026, The Guardian reports.

Of these, over a third (541) of fires were directly linked to lithium ion batteries, with a further 216 battery fires in bin lorries.

The ESA admitted these figures could be underestimates, as most fires at recycling centres leave no trace of the cause. An ESA spokesman said: “We know 40% of fires at recycling centres are caused by batteries, but we think the actual number is more like 70%.”

As a safety measure, the ESA is proposing new rules for a £5 deposit on the purchase of all vapes, giving users an incentive to return old devices to shops for safe disposal.

Patrick Brighty, the head of recycling policy at the ESA, said: “Battery fires are reaching epidemic proportions across Britain’s recycling and waste industry, placing workers at risk and threatening vital infrastructure upon which we all rely every day.

“It only takes a single battery hidden in household rubbish or recycling to cause a huge fire and decimate a facility. The total cost of battery fires now exceeds £1bn a year, with huge knock-on implications for insurance costs.

“Vapes are among the biggest culprits because they’re cheap, abundant and typically have a short use-life. ESA and others across our industry are calling on the government to implement a mandatory deposit scheme for vapes to incentivise users to return them safely back to the point of purchase so they can be recycled properly and away from other waste.”

Following the Ilford fire, the London Fire Brigade stated: “We’ve seen a growing number of fires at waste disposal sites that are believed to have been caused by a lithium battery.

“Fires that we attend at sites like recycling centres and scrap yards can be very time consuming for our firefighters and often require a high level of resources to put the fire out. We’ve also seen the detrimental environmental and societal impact these fires can have on local communities.”

Dr Francesco Restuccia, a fire expert at King’s College London, described the increase in fires at recycling centres as "exponential" and stated that the public are now using lithium batteries in a huge variety of everyday objects such as smartphones, children’s toys, toothbrushes and vapes, with many of these carelessly thrown away.

Dr Restucccia stated that when a lithium battery is crushed, it causes "a lot of internal short circuits" in the battery, sending its temperatures soaring until it reaches ignition point.