They save lives in a fire, but what do you do with an old smoke detector when it stops working? Can you just throw it out? Some of them have radioactive material, and as the I-Team found out the answer isn't clear cut.
We started looking into this when a viewer reached out to "Call 4 Action" after he couldn't find anywhere to recycle his old smoke detectors.
John Lemke has seven smoke detectors in his Milwaukee home. He just replaced four of them. He thought trading out expired smoke detectors would be easy. It was, until it came time to get rid of the old ones. "It's something you don't normally throw in the trash, to me," Lemke commented. An avid recycler he started to look into where he could drop off his smoke detectors. "I did most of the stuff online, and everything always said 'no we don't take this.' "
The MMSD hazardous waste collection site on Lincoln Avenue accepts a lot of household items, but smoke detectors are on the "do not bring" list. Veolia runs this site. Central Branch General Manager Joe Baumann told us despite the list some people show up with them. "If we would collect those the expense to dispose of those properly would really, really take a bite out of the greater good that we're trying to do here."
One of the common types of smoke detectors used in homes are ionization detectors. They contain a small amount of radioactive material. Something Jim Parise doesn't like to see end up in the landfill. He owns Parise Recycling Center in Kenosha. He makes exceptions for some items he doesn't normally handle like electronics so they don't go in the trash. But he can't do that with smoke detectors. "I have no market for them," he pointed out. "I have no place to bring them. If there was a market for it, sure we would consider it."
According to the DNR the state has no policy on what to do with ionization smoke detectors. Meaning there's no rule against just tossing them in the trash. If you do want to recycle the only option is to send the smoke detectors back to the manufacturer, at your expense.
John's concerned most people won't give throwing them away a second thought, "the majority of the people aren't going to go through that much trouble. They're going to take them off. They're going to be out in the trash."
The radiation in ionization smoke detectors is not a hazard, if it's contained. Advice from the experts is never take it apart. Direct exposure to the radioactive material is very dangerous. If you have an ionization smoke detector, meaning it contains radioactive material, it's required by law to have a warning label on the body of the detector. It will also say *ionization* on the packaging.
The U.S. Fire Administration says recycling is the preferred method. The Wisconsin DNR supports limiting the amount of waste in landfills so it also suggests you send smoke detectors back to the manufacturer.
