A significant fire broke out at a battery recycling facility in Kilwinning, North Ayrshire on 9 April 2025, exactly one year to the day after a similar incident at the same location…
Thankfully, no injuries were reported. However, the fire, characterised by multiple explosions, has reignited serious concerns about fire risk management in facilities dealing with hazardous materials…
SEPA, which revoked the site operator’s waste management licence in 2024 due to ongoing compliance issues, confirmed it had taken watercourse samples and would continue monitoring the environmental impact.
The firm was required to remove any waste that breached the licence to another facility.
The enforcement action meant it has to meet guidelines by June, including removing fire debris, repairing damaged infrastructure and implementing a fire prevention and mitigation plan.
Here’s the BBC article that FIA summarized:
So what really happened is that the recycling plant got shut down because of the fire and is in the process of being closed. And they haven’t fully complied with the closure yet, as the deadline is still a few weeks away.
If I were to hazard a guess, this was a poorly run facility and deemed not worthy of rehabilitation. So closure was the preferred option. If battery recycling were such a universally dangerous activity, there would be recycling fires far more frequently.
Right, but 365 days apart? And, of course, now we have both refinery and battery fires (Hopefully they don’t build refineries in residential areas.)
Right, they had an order to shut down after the first fire. But it’s worse than that. The company was earlier blocked from operating in England (this plant is in Scotland).
The firm behind a battery recycling plant that exploded twice in a year was refused a licence to operate in England. The Daily Record can reveal that Fenix Battery Recycling Ltd was slammed in a report by the Environment Agency in 2022 and blocked from operating in the Midlands.
There used to be a tiny refinery in Kalamazoo, with a trailer park right next door. The refinery closed in 82. There is a sizeable Marathon refinery in Detroit, with a residential neighborhood about a half mile away.
This is Dow Chemical, across a canal from a residential neighborhood in Freeport, TX. I’ve been there.
