Scotland’s rise in recycling centre fires explained following blaze near Glasgow

Linwood recycling centre went up in flames on 23 June, Scotland’s second in just a few months.

Transcript

00:00On the evening of Sunday the 23rd of June, firefighters were called to an electrical

00:04and battery recycling facility near Glasgow to reports of a large-scale fire.

00:09As thick black smoke filled the sky and eyewitnesses reported a chemical smell

00:14and loud explosions, Police Scotland Renfrewshire advised local residents to keep windows and doors

00:20closed, while First Minister John Swinney said he was very concerned. This comes just months after

00:26the fire service tackled a similar incident in Kilwinning. A chemical and engineering professor

00:31from Strathclyde University said the reason there has been a rise in these fires is because

00:35batteries are becoming more powerful amid a rise in demand for portable electronics,

00:40electronic vehicles and renewable energy. They warned that we need to have a more strategic plan

00:46to recycle these batteries at the end of their life because incidents such as this one will cause

00:51chemicals to be released which are extremely dangerous to us and the environment. At present

00:57there is no standard for disposal.