Full Circle Lithium Successfully Extinguishes Persistent C&D Landfill Lithium-Ion Battery Fire

Executive Summary

• Full Circle Lithium successfully extinguished a persistent C&D landfill lithium-ion battery fire in Evans County, Georgia, using its proprietary FCL-X™ suppression technology.
• The deployment resolved a three-day fire that conventional water and foam methods failed to control, achieving full extinguishment in under one hour and clearing all smoldering zones within three hours.
• The company highlights a rapidly escalating national crisis of lithium-ion battery fires in waste facilities, citing industry data that projects a massive addressable market for specialized suppression solutions.

Key Details

• Deployment Date & Location: May 18, 2026, at a C&D landfill facility in Evans County, Georgia.
• Suppression Performance: Active fire fully extinguished in under one hour; remaining hot spots suppressed in less than two hours; all smoldering areas completely resolved within three hours.
• Conventional Failure Context: Local fire crews attempted continuous suppression for three days without success due to deep-seated combustion and thermal runaway beneath the waste pile.
• Product Specifications: FCL-X™ is a proprietary, non-hazardous, water-based fire-extinguishing agent purpose-built for lithium-ion battery thermal runaway.
• Market Data & Opportunity:
• NWRA estimates 5,000+ annual fires at U.S. recycling facilities, with catastrophic losses rising 41% over five years.
• Facility insurance costs have surged from under $0.20 to as high as $10 per $100 of insured property value.
• 2025 recorded 448 publicly reported Li-ion battery fires in U.S./Canadian waste facilities, a 26% increase over the 2016-2021 average.
• 98.3% of Li-ion batteries ultimately end in landfills; the EPA classifies them as likely hazardous waste (D001/D003).
• Addressable U.S. market includes 4,100+ active landfill facilities (1,500+ C&D, 2,600+ MSW), plus hundreds of transfer stations, MRFs, and tens of thousands of collection vehicles.
• Commercialization Status: FCL-X™ is currently at an early stage of commercialization, with the company actively ramping up production and seeking distribution agreements.

Notable Quotes

• Matt Roper, VP of Roper Environmental Services: "Lithium-ion batteries are becoming one of the most significant fire risks facing waste facilities today. When these batteries are crushed, punctured, or damaged during collection and disposal operations, they can enter thermal runaway and ignite surrounding materials. Once that happens inside a landfill or debris pile, the fire can become extremely difficult to access and extinguish. I have responded to many landfill fires, and nothing I have used compares to the effectiveness of FCL-X™."
• Chad Carver, VP of Sales & Operations at FCL: "This incident is exactly why FCL-X™ exists. Lithium-ion battery fires in waste environments are fundamentally different from conventional fires -- they burn hotter, reignite more readily, and penetrate deeper into the waste mass than anything traditional suppression systems were designed to handle. The Evans County result demonstrates that FCL-X™ is not just an incremental improvement; it is a category-defining solution to an industry crisis that will only grow."