The explosion won’t necessarily include flames, just the blowing apart of fragments as the gases escape.
I found an abandoned one recently near my office. It was still full of gas judging by the weight of it. Still I was hesitant to use it due to the considerable rust. A metal recycler friend of mine suggested they can get tiny holes which can cause explosion. That was enough to override my tendency to use free stuff I find on the side of the road! Haha.
So, how does one recycle a gas bottle? I took it to a local gas supplier and asked if they have a recycling program. They were happy to take the bottle, for a fee of $5. They keep them onsite until a local artist takes them to build things out of.
The fee is certainly a community deterrent. It is a fee I am happy to pay because of my eagerness to see it off the streets, but I don’t always have $5 in liquid assets, and I can see how many would not be willing to pay that at all if they happened to find a gas bottle.
I hope to learn more about what the gas bottles are used for, and how beneficial their reincarnation is. I also hope to find if there is a genuine, molten steel recycling program for any of these type of products.
Until then, I am glad to know this bottle is safe with people who know how to dispose of gas, how to store pressurised vessels safely, and to give the steel a chance for a reinvention.
Edit: At a recently held council chemical waste cleanup held at my local Gosford City Council I discovered that they were accepting old gas bottles to recycle. The con is that you would need to stockpile it until one of the regular collection days, which is no problem to me, but the pro is that it will be recycled for free by a team who know what they are doing.