People are being urged to keep flammable products out of their wheelie bins after a fire broke out in a Picton rubbish truck.
After noticing smoke on Tuesday, the driver offloaded the waste in the car park of the Picton cemetery, before the Picton Volunteer Fire Brigade showed up.
The Marlborough District Council said in a statement that quick thinking from the driver and a prompt response from the brigade had prevented a serious fire.
People needed to avoid putting ashes, batteries, butane gas cylinders and helium cylinders into their wheelie bins as they posed a significant fire risk.
Solid waste manager Mark Lucas said ashes retained their heat for days and could start fires in household rubbish bins, rubbish trucks, transfer stations and landfills.
“You should safely dispose of ashes by emptying into a metal bin, pouring water over them and leaving for five days to cool,” he said.
“It is important that only cold ashes go in the red rubbish bin.”
Ashes from chemical-free firewood could be a good source of nutrients for the garden, containing potassium, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium, and making soil less acidic.
“Batteries also pose a huge fire risk and can’t be disposed of as general waste in your kerbside bin or any transfer station,” Lucas said.
Gas and helium cylinders, and large batteries such as car batteries, could be safely recycled at the Hazardous Waste Centre in Blenheim or at the region’s transfer stations.
A range of businesses had battery collection bins, such as Fresh Choice Picton, Life Pharmacy Blenheim, and Bunnings and Mitre 10.
The list of hazardous waste items that could not go in kerbside collection included waste oil and fuel, paint, pesticides and garden chemicals, household cleaners, pool or spa chemicals, fluorescent light tubes and bulbs, aerosols, asbestos, whiteware, plaster and grout, and all electronics.
Rubbish truck fires were a common issue. In March, an Auckland rubbish truck dumped its load in the street after it caught fire.
WM New Zealand managing director Evan Maehl told Stuff in April that rubbish fires were happening more than once a week in Auckland.
“We’ve had occasions when they go into a recycling facility, or a transfer station, where they’ve caused damage to facilities,” Maehl said.
“If you go back five years, it hardly ever happened. But there are a lot of lithium batteries around now, either rechargeable or those little round dot batteries.
“If they crack, interact with oxygen, and then there’s a fuel source, like cardboard, paper or plastic nearby, then they just take off.”
A full list of hazardous waste items and Marlborough battery drop-off locations could be found on the Marlborough District Council’s website.
By Kira Carrington, Local Democracy Reporter
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
