Lithium-ion batteries in garbage trucks are increasingly exploding, endangering New York City’s garbage workers.

The long, rectangular batteries used in e-bikes have become a burning threat to New York City homes, leading to as many as 626 fires and 26 deaths since 2022, according to the FDNY. These batteries are found in everything from power tools to vapes to laptops, and have become so ubiquitous that garbage people say they even find their way into the trash stream.

The number of garbage truck fires that were either caused or likely caused by discarded lithium-ion batteries rose from just one in 2017 to 28 in 2023, according to the agency. And this year, through early August, there have already been 23 such fires, although no injuries were reported.

“People still somehow hide them in black bags and throw them in the trash,” says Ari Kesler, chief operating officer of My Battery Recyclers, a hazardous waste hauler that specializes in e-waste.

“Out of sight, out of mind. That’s other people’s problem. So if a garbage man sees a pile of bags on the corner at 2 a.m., how does he know there’s a battery in them?”

When the trash compactor hits the batteries in the truck, or when the batteries are mixed with liquid, they suffer mechanical damage, Kesler said, which can trigger explosions. And when workers on the truck smell or see smoke, they have no choice but to immediately dump their load of trash. “Basically, they’re dumping all the trash they just picked up in the middle of the road,” Kesler said.

Firefighters then put out the fire and pack the remains of the burning battery into a special barrel, as lithium-ion battery fires are notoriously difficult to extinguish. Kesler’s company later accepts the burned batteries and recycles them by extracting and reselling raw materials such as cobalt.

Adam Mitchell, vice president of sales and marketing for waste management company Boro-Wide, said his employees have experienced about half a dozen such fires in recent years.

Last year in Bushwick, a battery – possibly used in a light fixture or speaker system – was picked up by one of Boro-Wide’s crews after someone discarded it in a multi-tenant studio. A fire broke out after wood was loaded into the truck at the next pickup location, Mitchell said.

“The heat is more intense than ever,” he said. “And it’s like a volcano… It’s not a slow-burning fire, it’s an instant inferno.”

Fires also occur again and again in waste disposal facilities. For example, a lithium-ion battery is said to have caused a fire on board a garbage collection barge in December 2021.

And at Balcones Recycling in Sunset Park, which collects metal, glass and plastic from the city’s private homes, fires caused by the batteries regularly occur, according to a garbage collection spokesman.

There is only one collection point in each county, but Councilwoman Sandy Nurse said more such points are needed to address the problem. She sponsored a resolution supporting a state bill that would require battery manufacturers to reimburse governments for disposal costs.

“It shouldn’t be taxpayers, it shouldn’t be consumers who have to pay for the end of life of these products that are made to break pretty quickly,” Nurse said. “We really need the help of companies, especially as people are losing their lives.”