Trucks catching fire from improper recycling; here's the right way

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Seven recycling trucks were destroyed by fire last year when residents made the mistake of putting lithium-ion batteries and other dangerous materials into their curbside recycling containers for pickup, a recycling company official revealed at a recent event in Glenview.

Javier Erazo, district manager of Groot Industries/Waste Connections told a room of more than 60 people gathered at the Glenview Library for an Oct. 27 program on proper recycling, “We probably deal with fires on a daily basis during certain seasons.

“Sometimes we’ll have a fire, we’ll extinguish it and then, within that same area, the second shift will come in hours later and something else will ignite.”

Co-sponsored by Greener Glenview, “Recycling: Myth vs. Reality,” incl