Garbage truck drivers already have an important job to do: safely and efficiently pick up the rubbish from people’s houses, sort it out, and move it to a designated area for disposal. It takes hard work and careful judgment to make sure the job is done correctly and quickly.
On Tuesday, in Padbury, a suburb north-west of Perth, garbage truck driver shivered in fear as his garbage truck went up in flames on a suburban street. Batteries that were found in a discarded keyboard, which was tossed inside a resident’s wheelie bin, are likely to blame for the cause of the fire – sparking an emergency situation.
Lithium batteries should not be disposed of in the regular waste receptacles, as they contain toxic materials and are combustible. This misstep required the truck driver to discard all the trash onto the roadway per the typical protocol in the business.
Shocking pictures of the incident which were shared on social media demonstrated rubbish left in a pile on the road opposite several homes, even though it was reported that it was removed two hours after the accident happened. Nevertheless, it is not evident who took care of the cleanup.
A City of Joondalup spokesperson has warned residents not to dispose of electronic waste such as the burnt-out black keyboard, which was revealed by one of the snaps to have caused the fire, along with their regular household rubbish.
“The driver’s vigilant behaviour and swift response prevented this from becoming a more serious incident, since lithium batteries and items are typically too small to recognize among a shipment,” they told.
