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The city of Kamloops and the Regional District are teaming up to ask residents to properly dispose of rechargeable batteries.
The message follows three fires at Emterra Recycling Plant in Kamloops in recent weeks.
Solid Waste Reduction Coordinator with the City of Kamloops Marcia Dick says batteries do not belong in garbage or recycling carts as they can pose a serious risk to workers and machinery. “So the lithium batteries, they’re very reactive. So lithium will when exposed to air or metal, it will catch fire. And so when that’s inside of a garbage truck or a solid waste facility, or inside your cart, I mean, not likely to happen inside your cart, but when it gets like into a piece of equipment, and that equipment moves it around, it gets crushed, it gets driven over, and there’s a lot of combustible material that are in recycling, so and garbage as well.”
“We know, I know that Emterra had a big fire a while back, and that was very impactful to our operation.” said Dick. “But we’ve had fires inside of our garbage trucks from lithium batteries, and it’s just it puts people at risk, it puts workers at risk, it puts the equipment at risk, and it’s just easy to do the right thing. Just take it to a battery recycling location,
TNRD staff note that the district did have to deal with a landfill fire at the Lower Nicola landfill in July, 2024 from a suspected lithium-ion battery.
Dick points out that these batteries are not just your typical cell or button batteries. “There’s batteries inside a lot of household goods. So if you think about smart watches or smartphones, hearing aids, power tools, anything that has like a rechargeable component could potentially be having a lithium battery in it. We’re talking anything that has a charge to it… those can also be responsibly recycled through these locations.”
How to Properly Dispose of Batteries:
When a rechargeable battery/electronic item containing a rechargeable battery reaches end of life, you can recycle the battery or the entire item at the following locations in Kamloops:
- North-Wood Environmental Services Household Hazardous Waste Facility (batteries only – no electronics)
- Mission Flats Landfill/Diversion Area
- Barnhartvale Landfill/Diversion Area
- Columbia Bottle Depot
- Lorne Street Bottle Depot
- A range of retailers that accept rechargable batteries
Additionally, household batteries are also accepted free of charge at 27 Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) solid waste facilities around the region. Electronics and small appliances are accepted at 11 TNRD Eco-Depots. Find the TNRD online search tool here.
What Happens to Recycled Batteries?
Call2Recycle is the official battery stewardship program in British Columbia and accepts used household batteries from over 1,700 locations in the province. Call2Recycle is a nonprofit organization committed to the safe and responsible collection and recycling of batteries across Canada while safeguarding communities from battery-related hazards. Call2Recycle’s mission is to reduce the environmental impact of used batteries by providing accessible, convenient drop-off locations and managing an efficient recycling program.
Other resources:
- Look up what can go where around the province using the Recycle Council of BC’s Recyclepedia search tool.
- Learn more about what household hazardous waste is and how to properly dispose of it at Kamloops.ca/HHW.
- Look up what can be disposed of where using the Waste Wizard in the Waste Wise Kamloops app. Kamloops.ca/WasteWise.
- Find a list of depot locations at Kamloops.ca/DepotLocations.
- Electronics Products Recycling Association – Recycle My Electronics.
