Garten Services’ household recycling operations remain closed after a Nov. 10 fire seriously damaged the equipment used to sort items. Plant workers suspect a stray battery or propane tank sparked the blaze.
A burned conveyor belt at Garten Services recycling plant after a fire on Nov. 10 (Courtesy/Garten Services)
Maybe it was a battery.
Or a propane tank thoughtlessly recycled.
Both are suspected of winding up in the recycling stream at Garten Recycling Services and triggering an after hours fire that has shut down operations for weeks.
A worker saw smoke coming from the at Garten plant at 3334 Industrial Way N.E. hours after operations had shut down for the day.
A call to 911 brought firefighters who prevented a catastrophic fire, but the blaze caused $30,000 in damage and stopped the recycling processing, said William Posegate, Garten’s chief operating officer.
“This is a good learning moment for the general public,” Posegate said. “Putting batteries and propane tanks in your recycling is dangerous and could actually kill somebody.”
The facility processes about half the household recyclables collected in Marion County, Posegate said, with the rest sent to Portland.
Workers sort through items on a conveyor belt, picking out unusable items such dirty diapers, bowling balls, batteries that people drop into recycling bins.
The Nov. 10 fire started in a pile of such materials below the belt.
Firefighters were called at 8:25 p.m. and on scene at 8:30, said Salem Fire Deputy Chief Gabe Benmoussa. The two-alarm fire required five engines and a ladder to extinguish.
Most of the flames went up, damaging the belt and a ceiling beam, but otherwise sparing the 1950s facility. Firefighters dragged the burning pile outside to extinguish the fire, Posegate said.
Posegate said they don’t know the exact item in the pile that sparked the blaze, but he suspects a spark from a discarded item like a battery might have ignited other flammable material.
Nobody was injured in the fire, but its impacts are still significant. The facility is still closed awaiting the installation of a new belt and hopes to reopen Dec. 9.
About 30 employees can’t go to their regular jobs, though Garten was able to find most of them work in other programs so they wouldn’t lose income, Posegate said.
For the recycling industry, the fire was a dramatic example of the costs imposed by “wishful recycling,” people discarding items that aren’t recyclable into big blue bins, hoping the facility can find a second life for them.
Posegate said those items still end up in the trash, but they can also gum up the works.
Heavier metal items like pots and pans can damage the conveyer belt, and workers wear Kevlar sleeves to avoid getting stuck by needles.
Garten is a nonprofit organization that trains and employs people with developmental disabilities in a variety of services, including processing recyclables.
More contamination in what comes from the public means more labor needed to separate trash from recycling. When labor costs go up, garbage rates go up, Posegate said. By weight, he estimated 15-20% of what they receive in household recycling is actually trash.
The fire risk of lithium ion batteries is a concern across the industry. The rechargeable batteries that power most consumer electronics can easily spark fires, especially when damaged or crushed, and are difficult to spot because they are small.
Discarded propane tanks are also a concern, said Alan Pennington, waste reduction coordinator for Marion County’s environmental services program.
He shared the story of the fire on the program's Facebook page last week, hoping it would serve as a dramatic example of the importance of recycling correctly.
“The margins for all these recyclers, whether we’re talking for profit or nonprofit, it’s really thin,” Pennington said. “When you contaminate, it makes it really hard for them to be successful.”
Both officials said educating the public about recycling is a struggle, made worse by shifts in recent years which led many recyclers to stop accepting most plastics.
Some people are diligent about researching the best way to dispose of a given item, and a handful just don’t care. But most fall somewhere in the middle - people who want to sort items correctly but aren’t always sure where things go.
Pennington said Marion County households can safely dispose of batteries by putting them in a plastic bag, ideally with tape over the poles, then setting them in the small blue bin they use for glass recycling.
Small propane tanks, like those used for camping, should be emptied and thrown away with household garbage, where they’ll be safely incinerated, Pennington said.
The county has a guide where people can look up dozens of items including paint, animal remains and outdoor gear and find a place to dispose or safely recycle the item in question.
Posegate said the fire should remind consumers of the importance of safely discarding items that can’t be recycled.
Public education about recycling is “a constant uphill battle on an icy, icy hill,” Posegate said.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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