Fire at a recycling facility This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Plastic fires at recycling centres like the one in Indiana last month seem to have become much more frequent in recent years. There have been 367 in the past year in the USA and Canada alone and quite a number in Australia. The February fire at a Melbourne recycling facility was the tenth since October last year. Of the UK the Guardian reported in 2017 that some 300 fires a year had occurred at recycling plants between 2001 and 2013. See for example the South Yorkshire fire of 2013 or Manchester, Birmingham or Nottingham recycling centres that same year. The Bad News about Plastic Fires Such fires not only cause huge amounts of pro perty damage – the most recent fire in Melbourne for example, is expected to cost some five million dollars, but also pose health risks. Some 2000 people within half a mile of the Richmond fire had to be evacuated for over a week after the EPA detected...
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