CINCINNATI —

As the holiday season approaches, Cincinnati's Rumpke recycling facility is using artificial intelligence to prevent fires caused by improper disposal of lithium ion batteries found in many everyday items.

"It keeps me up at night," Jeff Snyder, senior vice president at Rumpke's recycling facility in St. Bernard, said, Advertisement

The facility, which burned to the ground in 2012, has experienced 50 to 60 fires in 2024 alone, with batteries often being the cause.

"If you damage a battery or you puncture a battery or you push it really hard on to the ground, or we gyrate it in our equipment, any of those types of things, you mess with the lithium ion, it heats up to 1,300 degrees in seconds and then almost like, explodes," Snyder said.

Fires have become more common as ba

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