Small fires like the above are surprisingly common at recycling centres. Somewhere in the UK there is one every day, on average.
As a result the industry has become good at extinguishing them, but they would rather not deal with them at all, particularly as recycling centres are full of combustible materials.
The problem is that however attentive staff might be to the threat of fire, they can't control what people put in their recycling bins.
The Environmental Services Association (ESA), which represents waste firms like Biffa, Veolia and Suez, says too many batteries are going into either recycling bins or black rubbish bags, where they are easily damaged by sorting equipment and start to burn - so-called "zombie" batteries.
The ESA has launched a campaign called Take Charge which encourages people to dispose of batteries properly.
"Unfortunately, the majority of batteries thrown away in the UK at the moment are not put in the proper recycling bins. Fires caused by carelessly discarded zombie batteries endanger lives, cause millions of pounds of damage and disrupt waste services," says Jacob Hayler, executive director of ESA.
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