June 5, 2025: Insurance companies are increasingly refusing to cover waste management facilities, or hiking the cost of premiums, amid a surge in fires caused by discarded lithium batteries, an alliance of European firms has warned.
In Germany alone, waste collection trucks are being hit by up to 30 fires a day, while it is estimated that lithium batteries are the root cause of 180-240 fires annually in Austrian waste plants, according to eight groups including the European Waste Management Association.
The group issued a statement on May urging EU leaders to take “decisive regulatory action” to protect waste management infrastructure and employees.
The group has called on the European Commission to establish a Battery Fire Prevention and Recovery Fund and a Deposit Return System to meet collection targets set out in the EU’s Battery Regulation.
Battery fires in the waste management sector result in significant economic losses and an increasing health and safety risk to workers and citizens, as well as a reputational issue for the affected companies and the entire sector due to negative media coverage, the group said.
For many medium-sized waste management companies, it is no longer affordable to insure their facilities, while some facilities in Belgium are expected to lose insurance coverage altogether by 2025 due to the risk of fire, the group said.
The recycling industry, for example, now has a loss ratio almost twice as high as other industries that are also at risk of fire, such as the wood processing industry.
To reduce the risk of fire, waste management facilities have to invest heavily in staff training on fire prevention, safety, and first emergency measures and in fire prevention equipment such as thermal imaging cameras, smoke detectors or precision water cannons, which can cost up to several hundred thousand euros a year, the group claimed.
