What to do about rechargeable and lead acid batteries at the Lyon County Landfill?
That was the question at Tuesday’s Lyon County Board of Commissioners meeting, and it was brought up because of the potential for fires at the landfill..
Lyon County Environmental Administrator Roger Schroeder reported that there were at least six fires at the landfill last year that were attributed to rechargeable batteries from laptops and power tools and lawnmowers. He said neighboring landfill sites have experienced similar issues.
“Fortunately for us, all of these fires for us were easily contained,” Schroeder said. “Dump a load of sand on them and we’re good.”
But silver linings aside, the problem is still there and needs to be addressed, Schroeder said. With that, he brought up the idea of educating the public about what they should do with their rechargeable batteries and that putting them with their waste is not acceptable and perhaps warning people if their actions don’t change they could face a fine.
And there’s the idea of imposing a fee for the batteries.
“We threw out the idea of $50 every time there is a rechargeable battery that’s identified; the problem with this is, the haulers are the ones who end up paying that fee,” Schroeder said. “I’m a little bit uncomfortable with the idea that the haulers get the blame for people throwing their laptop in the garbage without taking the battery out. We do need to take some kind of steps though to have some kind of enforcement.”
Whether it’s negligence or lack of awareness by the public, Schroeder is looking for answers to the problem.
One of the roadblocks of solving the dilemma is pinpointing the problem area(s), Schroeder said. If there are areas of repeat offenders, those can be targeted for increased education.
“If we find a laptop battery in a certain load, we can notify the sanitation company and see if they can help us figure out what part of town it came from,” Schroeder said. “It is something that we need to address.”
Some commissioners weren’t exactly warm to the idea of implementing a fine.
“The question I have is, how many different things are we going to charge with separate fees and trying to figure out where they come from?” Commissioner Rick Anderson said. “You’re better off putting a fee on at the beginning to help reimburse you that for us trying to charge the haulers.”
Anderson asked if the County is going to slap a fee on batteries, why not PFAS?
“You’re not going to stop it,” Anderson said. “That’s the problem. Anything we try … all of a sudden, you’re going to start finding computers out in your ditch. This isn’t the haulers fault, by no means.”
Schroeder said landfill operators are well-trained when it comes to being aware of items in the landfill that could cause problems.
“We stop most of them,” he said.
