Huge fires at UK recycling centers underscores the need for regulation, SUPDET presenter tells conference attendees

“I’d like to talk to you about rubbish,” said Stuart Lloyd of Zurich Insurance as he stepped up to the podium this afternoon to present at the 2015 Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications (SUPDET) Conference in Orlando, Florida. The United Kingdom, where Lloyd is based, has a big problem with fire at recycling centers. Last year, the UK averaged one recycling center fire per week, many of them large events that took weeks to extinguish. One of those fires stretched for 7-acres and shut down a freeway and airspace around the facility, Lloyd said. Despite the problem, efforts...