 Across the country, landfills fires have been on the rise recently and Crow Wing County wants to remind people to properly discard their hazardous waste to prevent these fires from happening. One item in particular that has caused many landfill fires are lithium batteries. When lithium batteries are not properly discarded, they can end up in a trash compactor which can cause the batteries to explode and start fires. With every county in Minnesota having its own household hazardous waste program, discarding batteries or any other hazardous items has never been easier. We're trying to get people to do the right thing with batteries especially rechargeable ones because they're the ones that can be released energy and actually start fires in the landfill and actually they're free to get rid of too. So if you bring them to us, the recyclable, 100% recyclable, bring them to us, we'll make sure it gets in the waste stream to get recycled and be reused. Batteries can be disposed of at any time at the Crow Wing County landfill but an appointment is needed to dispose of other hazardous items during the winter months. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.