Last year, 65% of waste facilities fires in California began with lithium-ion batteries. And when one goes, others can, too.

“If there are multiple batteries there, you will have not just a fire, you will have explosions,” said Carl Smith, CEO and president of Call2Recycle, a national recycling program funded by battery manufacturers.

It’s such a big problem that this week, California launched an awareness campaign to try to get consumers to keep these ever-so-useful but also potentially dangerous items out of garbage trucks and landfills. It’s part of a national effort to keep increasingly common batteries from causing fires.