Experts were last night still trying to identify the cause of a huge blaze at a Birmingham recycling plant.
More than 70 firefighters tackled the blaze which sent 500 tons of paper up in smoke at Premier Waste, in Walsall Road, Perry Barr, early yesterday.
No-one was hurt but West Midlands Fire Service said such incidents were becoming “a real drain on resources.”
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But the recycling industry has defended its safety record.
The industry’s largest trade body said there was “no magic answer” to the problem.
Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association which represents about 65 members nationally, said there had been “an extraordinary spate” of such fires following a very dry period of weather, with seemingly no single set of causes or solutions.
In the West Midlands, which has seen a growth in the recycling processing industry, there have been almost 20 fires since January. Earlier, crews had been called to extinguish a fire at a smaller site in Wolverhampton and in July, a Chinese lantern was blamed for igniting 10,000 tons of plastics stored at a huge open-air site in Smethwick.
It was branded the largest blaze the fire service had ever dealt with.
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Following that incident, West Midlands Chief Fire Officer and president of Association of Chief Fire Officers Vij Randeniya said he wanted to meet recycling industry figures to discuss ways of preventing fires.
Mr Ellin said the industry was taking the issue seriously and was launching a campaign with its members in the autumn designed to mitigate against severe fires and strengthen standards.
“We are in the throes of starting a campaign to link health and safety and fire performance with insurance premiums on the basis that the more compliant you are in fire safety the cheaper the premium will be,” he said.
“Of course you cannot cater for Chinese lanterns but you can look at ways of negating the impact of a fire, like proper fire breaks, and cutting out anything which can cause a spark – for example a loose piece of baling wire can be a sparking hazard, and keeping as much of these sites under cover as you can.”
Mr Ellin added that the industry is aware it needs to tackle the issue, not least because the few specialist insurers willing to offer cover were increasing their premiums because of the number of fires.
“Premiums have just being going up and up,” he said.