Warning over rise in exploding laughing gas canisters at waste centress
Authorities warn that there is also an increase in explosions endangering the lives of workers due to an increase in laughing gas cylinders being discarded in landfills.
Operators say there has been an increase in large nitrous oxide cylinders arriving on sites in recent years, despite “laughing gas” being reclassified as a Class C drug in November 2023, making it illegal to possess without a legitimate reason.
The Environmental Services Association (ESA), which operates many waste-to-energy plants on behalf of councils in the UK, which burn non-recyclable waste to produce energy, believes the reclassification creates an “unintended consequence” that “does little to curb substance abuse”.
Instead, he argues, it has moved drug dealers and recreational users away from small, single-use cartridges and onto much larger and more dangerous cylinders, with explosions causing more than £1.5 million a year in damage at a single site.
David Crawford, facilities manager at Cory’s riverside site in London, said: “When a can explodes it is like a small explosive going off, damaging machinery and making it difficult for us to process waste safely.
Last year alone, the facility detected nearly 670,000 cans in processed waste, 4,000 of which exploded.
Enforcement also becomes more difficult because people who have it can claim legitimate use. Nitrous oxide has a limited number of legal uses, such as in medical settings, manufacturing, and catering, where it is used as a propellant in whipped cream. It can also be used for hobbies such as motor racing and model rocketry. But outside of these niche uses, legitimate demand is low.
But consumer sales of commercial cylinders appear to be on the rise, and the most dangerous are large pressurized cylinders that weigh more than 2kg and can contain 600g-700g of highly explosive gas.
Once emptied, large cylinders remain under pressure and are classified as hazardous waste. These should be disposed of through private commercial collections, but instead many are dumped in parks and roadsides or thrown into general rubbish and recycling bins, where they pose a serious threat.
Charlotte Rule, ESA’s head of climate and energy policy, said: “Our industry has invested in AI detection systems and additional security measures, but this is like looking for a needle in a haystack and some cylinders inevitably succeed.
“To protect workers and infrastructure and ensure proper enforcement of the law, the government should ban the retail sale of large pressurized nitrous oxide cylinders and restrict their use for legitimate commercial purposes.”
The ESA is also calling for urgent action such as mandatory warnings on the cylinder, clearer point-of-sale information and safe disposal instructions. The waste industry is also exploring the use of “amnesty containers” at large events, as well as safe drop-off points at household waste recycling centers (HWRCs).
In the longer term, ESA, with the support of sanctions, has proposed a deposit-refund scheme to ensure that cylinders are tracked, collected safely and returned for recycling.
A government spokesman said: “The misuse of nitrous oxide is dangerous to people’s health and suppliers have a clear legal duty to ensure products are not sold for recreational purposes.
“Illegally disposing of bins is an offense and local councils have legal powers to take enforcement action against offenders.”
