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Properly Dispose of Hazardous Household Waste

In our society, hazardous waste is practically guaranteed. We use many chemicals in our homes, while at play and at work. Wise purchase, use, storage and disposal of these chemicals can greatly reduce their negative environmental impact.

This is an area where most people can make a big improvement in their habits and taking the time to reduce your use of and properly dispose of potentially dangerous items is a big step in living a “cleaner life”.

Improperly disposed of hazardous household waste consists of chemicals that leach into our ground water and contaminate our drinking water supply and large consumer items that are often found randomly discarded by people and left to generally degrade the condition of our environment.

It is once again necessary for you to check with your local waste collection company to see what the specific guidelines are for hazardous household waste in your area. These items should not be discarded with your general trash because they need special handling.

Click to view a list of items considered to be special and hazardous household waste.

What you can do.

In many cases, disposal is difficult at best and the preferred solution is to:

• use an alternative material,
• recycle where possible (oil and batteries) or
• use the material completely, then solidify residual by mixing it with an absorbent material (sawdust, kitty litter, paper towels, rags) and dispose of the container according to local guidelines.