Safe and Effective Disposal of Household Hazardous Waste

It is no secret that every household produces significant amount of waste every day. Ranging from the garden variety vegetable peels to newspapers and electronics, it is essential to segregate waste based on whether or not they are hazardous and dispose of them accordingly. If you have hazardous waste at home, here’s how you can get started.

What is hazardous waste?

Before you start taking measures to ensure proper disposal of hazardous waste, it is important to first understand what it comprises of. By its simple definition, hazardous waste is any material that should not be thrown into the community trash and require special instructions for disposal. Some of the common hazardous trash includes automotive products like gasoline, wax, motor oil, fluids, antifreeze, oil filters, polish etc. This can also include CFLs, fluorescent light bulbs, electronics like computers, laptops, television sets, cell phones, MP3 players, fax machines, printers, as well as batteries for home and vehicles.

Universal materials like thermometers and thermostats containing mercury should be disposed carefully and should not be mixed with the everyday trash. Household cleaning agents like rust remover, drain cleaners, ammonia, shower cleaners etc should never be thrown in the same bag as old bottles or produce. Garden chemicals like fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and herbicides should be disposed of responsible as should swimming pool chemicals and sharp objects like needs. It is also important to prevent irresponsible dumping of paint problems including oil based paints, spray paint, latex paint, wood stains and preservatives.

How to dispose responsibly

Regardless of how careful you are, your household is bound to produce hazardous waste that must be treated and disposed of with care. The first step to safe and responsible disposal is to determine whether or not it is hazardous. If the answer is yes, there are a few simple ways to deal with it. One of the simplest ways is to use hazardous material instead of wasting it, be it motor oil, batteries or CFL lights. Avoid throwing away perfectly functional electronics. If you do have hazardous waste, ring up your local public works department on where you can give them.

Another great way to deal with potentially hazardous waste is to determine other uses for them. List down all the hazardous material you have, be it in small quantities or bulk, and determine if someone you know or a local business can use the same material for different purposes. It is also important to note that not all hazardous waste is accepted by your municipality in which case, you should take special measures to dispose of them.

Dealing with non-hazardous waste

If a majority of your waste is not hazardous, there are simpler ways to dispose of them. As much as possible, try to recycle, reuse or refurbish waste products! If you have unwanted materials that you consider waste, give it away for free or for a price on one of the many online listing services and portals. Finally, segregate your waste into dry and organic piles and place them in separate garbage bags. This will make the work of the municipality a lot easier!

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