We hope our communities heed the caution expressed by the staff and management of Lycoming County’s landfill.

Lithium batteries need to be recycled with facilities equipped to handle them — not disposed of at Lycoming County Landfill.

The experts noted pool chemicals also pose unacceptable risks of combustion.

Improper disposal already most likely caused a fire at the landfill, and we are all grateful that staff were able to extinguish that fire quickly.

“They’re a huge hazard. They’re a hazard on the collection side and the processing side — on both sides of the landfill and recycling,” Lauren Strausser, recycling coordinator, told the Sun-Gazette for a report in the Aug. 12-13 edition.

“It can be a very serious catastrophe. All the stuff that goes into landfill, plastics and other things, can create very toxic smoke that could be very harmful,” Donny Hassenplug Jr., customer and materials resource specialist for Resource Management Services told the Sun-Gazette. “I know landfills have closed for weeks due to fires, so you can imagine the backlog that would cause.”

It’s “another hazard that we’re dealing with on a daily basis. I’m not sure why we’re seeing more and more,” Strausser said.

It’s important that everyone familiarize themselves with what can be thrown out and sent to our landfill. Preventing tragedies with far-reaching consequences needs to be a priority and this alarming trend of the landfill’s staff seeing more and more inappropriate materials needs to end.