NEW YORK – Across New York City, lithium-ion batteries are causing fires in garbage trucks, presenting garbage workers with a dangerous dilemma.

The batteries are notorious for causing difficult-to-extinguish fires that can spread quickly in houses, apartment blocks and now even in garbage trucks.

“If these batteries are punctured or crushed, they catch fire, and if there are objects like cardboard, paper or wood near them, it can cause a major fire inside the truck,” explains Thomas Toscano, CEO of Boro-Wide, a private plumbing company based in Queens.

The New York City Department of Waste Collection is reporting an increasing number of garbage truck fires that are either confirmed or suspected to be caused by lithium-ion batteries. However, these reports do not include incidents involving private garbage collection companies such as Boro-Wide.

In one incident, a lithium-ion battery ignited a fire inside one of Boro-Wide’s garbage trucks, forcing workers to dump the burning garbage onto the street and wait for firefighters to extinguish the flames.

“The last thing you want is to have a burning pile of garbage behind you, but sometimes we have to remove the garbage from the truck for safety reasons,” Toscano noted.

The trucks are equipped with cameras, including ones that monitor the inside of the truck. However, batteries can be hidden in bags, making them difficult for workers to detect. Once picked up by unwitting workers, they cause fires that break out several stops after being loaded into the truck.

Toscano is urging New Yorkers to recycle their lithium-ion batteries instead of throwing them in the trash.

“Please don’t throw them in the trash. They need to be recycled. They are very harmful to the environment and if they end up in the landfill untouched, there are chemicals in them that could leach into the soil,” Toscano said.

In New York, stores that sell lithium batteries or products containing them are required to accept them for recycling. In addition, the Department of Sanitation provides special waste collection points in each borough that are open every Saturday for the proper disposal of these hazardous materials.