With the Big Auckland Clean Up underway after the recent flooding, we are reminding residents not to put gas bottles, rechargeable batteries, and other hazardous waste out for collection.
General Manager Waste Solutions Parul Sood says, “These items can be dangerous, the likes of gas bottles and batteries can ignite and cause truck fires.
“We appreciate that people are cleaning up their property after the flooding and ask that the don’t put these items into their rubbish bins or the skip bins provided by council to help with the clean-up,” she says.
“This is for everyone’s safety, including your own.”
See here for how to dispose of batteries and other hazardous waste, which is flammable, toxic, corrosive, explosive or radioactive. Gas bottles can be taken to a nearby transfer station or Community Recycling Centre. Matagas or TankTest will take gas bottles for free.
“Gas bottles have the potential to ignite once they’re in the truck causing fires, which are a danger to the drivers, their vehicles and potentially the public if they are nearby so it’s important they are disposed of correctly,” Parul says.
Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries that have been causing a recent spate of truck fires are used for example in cordless power tools, mobile phones, and laptops. More recently 'banks' of them are used in power banks and are generally the cause of the fires, not the smaller disposable alkaline AA or AAA types of batteries.
