A BATTERY that had been thrown away with a vacuum cleaner sparked a small blaze at a Dorset Council-run waste centre - leading to warnings about the dangers of putting batteries in rubbish and reycling bins.

The fire was sparked at the Sherborne Household Recycling Centre, in West Mill Lane, on Monday after a vacuum cleaner battery combusted under a pile of debris.

Firefighters were not called to the scene, but a site spokesperson said the blaze 'could have been much worse'.

Councillor Jill Haynes, Dorset Council’s Portfolio Holder for Customer and Community Services, said: “Batteries of any kind should never be placed in a bin.

"It does not matter if they are used or fully charged, once crushed or compacted in our collection vehicles they can cause fires.

Bournemouth Echo:

"Batteries also contain materials that can be damaging to the environment if not disposed of correctly."

Dorset Fire & Rescue said these sites carry a high risk of fire as they contain vast amounts of material, which is often compacted.

These conditions can allow heat to build up naturally within the stack of waste and, in certain circumstances, this will spontaneously combust.

The council are now asking the public to place household batteries in a reusable battery bag, which can be left out alongside recycling and collected at the kerbside.

Alternatively, Cllr Haynes said batteries can be taken to a battery recycling bank – many supermarkets now have these.

"If you need a battery bag, please visit the Dorset Council website," added Cllr Haynes.

The 'near miss' comes after the Environmental Services Association (Esa) revealed dead batteries were responsible for causing hundreds of fires each year at waste and recycling sites and urged people not to throw them away in household rubbish or recycling.

They said batteries discarded with general waste are likely to be crushed or punctured during collection and processing, while some types, particularly lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries, can ignite or explode when damaged and set fire to other materials.

Lithium-ion batteries - typically found in laptops, tablets, mobile phones, Bluetooth devices, shavers, electric toothbrushes, power tools and e-cigarettes - are believed to have been responsible for at least 250 fires at recycling and waste facilities across the UK in the year to March 2020.

These fires represented more than a third of all fires reported, up from a quarter the year before.

People in the UK throw away 22,000 tonnes of batteries a year, according to Esa, but only 45 per cent are recycled properly.