lithium-ion batteries have become a leading cause of fires at scrap metal and waste recycling facilities, with scrap yards being heavily damaged due to the large volume of mixed metals being handled where the batteries are hidden. It is now considered an ongoing operational problem in shipyards, resulting in higher insurance premiums, equipment damage, and lost production time.
These batteries often penetrate light iron piles, automobile bodies, appliances, or mixed scrap and ignite during processing, crushing, or compaction. Until recently, there was no easy method for detecting batteries because they can be small, often non-magnetic, and not visually obvious in piles.
This identification problem is the same problem that firefighters and yard personnel face when trying to extinguish battery fires. Because these batteries can have self-sustaining internal chain reactions that continue to generate intense heat and gases, the batteries must be located and isolated after the fire has been extinguished. Otherwise, fires could last for days.
In the US and Canada, the 2025 lithium-ion battery caused fires at recycling facilities, and materials recovery facilities grew 26 percent over previous years' average. And in Europe, the European Recycling Industry Confederation (EuRIC) says these fires caused by lithium batteries now pose an "existential risk" for companies recycling e-waste or scrap metal, with average cost of damage
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