A new safety campaign has been jointly launched by Veolia and Shropshire Council following a spate of fires and explosions caused by hazardous materials being incorrectly discarded in household bins across the county.

The initiative aims to significantly raise awareness of the serious risk posed by vehicle and facility fires, which, on average, account for one preventable fire every day across the UK’s waste management infrastructure, including in Shropshire where Veolia provides essential recycling, waste collection, and treatment services.

Shifnal Explosion and Battlefield Fire

The campaign focuses on educating the public about the extreme dangers certain waste items pose to the people who handle them, as well as the damage caused to vital recycling infrastructure.

An explosion in a bin lorry in Shifnal was caused by a misplaced fire extinguisher, and at the Battlefield Household Recycling Centre in Shrewsbury, a fire was caused by a wrongly disposed battery.

These incidents, and others across the country, occur when dangerous items like vapes, electrical items, batteries, or gas canisters are crushed in Refuse Collection Vehicles (RCVs) or during processing at facilities, making them highly flammable. This directly endangers Veolia staff and the general public in residential areas.

The Four Major Hazards: How to Dispose Safely

The digital campaign, which includes real footage of the resulting fires and explosions, is being displayed across social media and on collection vehicles, focusing on four commonly misplaced items:

Vapes – Return to retailers or take to one of the five county Household Recycling Centres (HRCs). NEVER place in household or on-street bins.

Batteries – Use the kerbside recycling service. Place in a clear container on top of the purple top bin on collection day.

Electrical Items – Items with batteries, plugs, cables, or hidden batteries (e.g., electric toothbrushes, toys) should be taken to an HRC.

Gas Canisters & Bottles – Take them to your local HRC for safe handling and disposal.

Putting these items in the bin risks serious injuries to collection crews and facility staff, including burns, chemical exposure, and smoke inhalation, as well as causing substantial damage to essential infrastructure.

A Call for Simple Changes

Jeff Sears, Regional Director, Treatment West at Veolia, stressed the importance of protecting the workforce.

“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, echoed the warning.

“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.”