![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/080724IONtabletop-114a-1.png?resize=1000%2C665&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cLithium-ion batteries are all around us,\u201d said Dale Henderson, director of the county\u2019s Waste and Recycling Division. \u201cThey\u2019re in our laptops, phones, toys, the list goes on and on. They\u2019re not supposed to end up at the landfill, but they often do, either because residents don\u2019t realize they\u2019re throwing the batteries in the garbage, or because they think they\u2019re not doing any harm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lithium-ion batteries can easily overheat, rupture and ignite fires, releasing toxic gases and creating a bad situation at the landfill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The exercise was facilitated by Emergency Response Educators and Consultants. Participants included Polk County Fire Rescue, the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Polk County Emergency Management, the Broward County landfill, Lakeland Electric, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Forest Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been four lithium-ion fires at the North Central Landfill in 2024. So, ideally, lithium-ion batteries don\u2019t end up at the landfill. To that end, Polk County residents can drop off used lithium-ion batteries at the county’s Household Hazardous Waste facility. Check www.polkwastewise.net<\/a> for location details and operating hours. You also can visit www.call2recycle.org<\/a> to locate nearby battery recycling drop-off spots in your area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe brought these community partners together to review our current policies and to identify needs with regard to lithium-ion batteries,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cThat way, when the worst-case scenario occurs, we\u2019re ready to work together. The landfill is a unique, ever-changing landscape, and it takes a prepared group of professionals to keep it safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Polk County\u2019s Waste and Recycling Division hosted a \u201cLithium-Ion Fire and Chlorine Release\u201d exercise at the North Central Landfill on Wednesday. The four-hour exercise, which was funded by the Central Florida… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":48696,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/080724IONtabletop-114a-1.png","type":"image\/png"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[9393],"class_list":["post-48692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-polk-county-hosts-lithium-ion-battery-training-exercise"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48697,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48692\/revisions\/48697"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}