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Propane Tanks Cause Explosion At Recycling Center

An explosion today at the Kent County Recycling and Education Center on Wealthy Street has renewed the call for propane tanks to be disposed of properly.  This isn’t the first such explosion and now the county is calling on residents to play it safe, when disposing of propane.

“Never, ever, ever put a partially full propane cylinder in the trash or in the recycling bin, there’s too much danger, and the likelihood is someone could get injured and we could have equipment damage.”

Kent County Department of Public Works Director, Darwin Baas says they were very fortunate today that there were no serious injuries at the Kent County Recycling and Education Center on Wealthy street southwest.  One of their supervisors was taken in for medical observation.  The problem? Three small, one-pound propane cylinders, generally used on camping stoves were put in the recycle baler.  And this isn’t the first time.

“Virtually, one year ago today, we had the same thing happen. We think it was just one propane tank that did 90, 000 dollars of damage to our baler and to things around the baler. And in this instance, we’re very fortunate, our supervisor would have been standing in a different place and could have been severely injured, and so it is a real problem.”

So what should you do? Baas says first, remember the propane cylinders are disposable, not recyclable.  Second, make sure you use all the propane before you dispose of it.

“If you can’t use it, find someone else who can use it. Or, bring it in to a household hazardous waste collection program.”

Baas says they’re while they’re up and operating, they’re still trying to ascertain how much damage was done.  Noting, these incidents can be quite costly.  He adds they continue to work with the Grand Rapids Fire Prevention Bureau and hope residents will heed the warnings and help out.

“This Recycling and Education center, this is a community asset. We’ve invested over 11 million dollars in this facility and it’s up to us, to make sure that, when we’re putting things in a recycle container, that we’re putting the right things in there.”

The county says  propane tanks can be brought in for safe disposal at the South Kent Recycling & Waste Center, 10300 South Kent Drive, Byron Center, the North Kent Recycling & Waste Center, 2908 Ten Mile Road, Rockford or any of Kent County’s SafeChem household hazardous waste drop off centers, listed at www.accesskent.com/waste.

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.