Before you launch into a weekend of cleaning out your cabinets or the garage, stop for a refresher course on disposing of all that leftover paint, used motor oil, expired medications, dead batteries and other items considered “hazardous household waste”. You may realize you have more hazardous junk then you thought.
Disposing properly of such materials isn’t as simple as just tossing them into the trash. Careless disposal of these items can have adverse environmental effects.
When you put things in the trash, you may think they just “go away”, but there is really no “away”. What we put out into the environment as trash, will come back to us in water, air, and even food.
The best way to handle hazardous household waste is to use less in the first place and buy only what you need. Never pour hazardous household products down the sink or the toilet and never dump them in the storm drain. Instead, look for household hazardous waste collection sites in your area. To find a program near you contact your local recycling center or solid waste agency. Here’s a bonus tip (for our Canadian cousins) when trying to get rid of any non-hazardous materials: companies like this Toronto Junk Removal service specialize in collecting and hauling off any useless clutter that’s collected in the basement, garage, attic, etc. – and they’ll make sure everything that’s recyclable is taken to the right place. You can also check for collection sites at Earth 911.
Home and Garden Products
When it comes to home improvements and cleaning and gardening products, always look for the safer, organic alternatives. After buying a product, try to use all of it. If you are stuck with leftovers, offer them to neighbors, local businesses or community organizations.
Used Motor Oil
It’s a major source of oil contamination in the waterways and can end up polluting our drinking water sources. Fortunately, oil can be re-refined and continue it’s useful life as new oil or as a raw material for petroleum. Used motor oil is one of the most widely collected household hazardous waste items, (according to Anne Reichman, program director of Earth 911). Many service stations and automotive stores will gladly take your leftovers. Earth 911 can also assist anyone in finding a drop off location.
Expired Medications
Who hasn’t flushed old medications down the toilet at one point in their life? To safely toss medications, put liquids, pills and capsules into a sealable plastic bag. Add kitty liter, sawdust, or used coffee grounds to the bag to make the bag less appealing to children or animals. Seal the bag, and then place it in the trash. For more info on disposing of medications properly, visit, smarxtdisposal.
Left Over Paint
Paint is the number one hazardous item people bring to waste collection sites. Latex, (water based), paint poses fewer health and environmental risks than oil-based paints, but both should be disposed of correctly. Read and follow the label instructions and check with your local hazardous coordinator about the requirements in your area. Some community sites provide swap tables where paint can be left for others to take. To find a site near you, Earth 911 has the scoop.
Batteries
Americans use up to six wireless gadgets everyday, usually powered by rechargeable batteries. While rechargeable is the way to go, they still contain toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, mercury and lead. That’s why it’s not safe to just toss them in the trash. Instead, recycle them through the Rechargable Battery Recycling Corporation which has collection boxes for batteries and cell phones at more then 30,000 retail and community locations nationwide. To find a site near you, visit, rbrc.org
Did You Know?
- You can use cedar chips or white peppercorns as a substitute for mothballs.
- The EPA says that if all Americans recycled used oil from DIY oil changes, there would be enough motor oil for more than 50 million cars a year.
- A Community group in your community may be really happy to get your leftover paint to use.
- According to the EPA, the average home accumulates as much as 100 pounds of hazardous waste in its storage areas.
- More than 350 million rechargeable batteries are purchased in the U.S. every year according to the EPA.
Eco Sites With Great Eco Tips
There are many alternative choices now available for our homes, inside and out.
PlanetGreen has compiled a list of the top 5 coolest materials for your home, from what type of paint to use, to “green insulation”.
If you think of your home without pollution, here’s some bad news. The levels of pollutants in indoor air can be from two to more than 100 times higher than outdoors, according to the U.S EPA. Grist has compiled a great list on how to clean your house without hurting the planet.
Treehugger has put together a plethora of handy guides to help you green your lives with ease, while also explaining the “whys”. Make sure you check this out and tell your friends, family and colleagues! Most of us understand the need to “go green”, some of us understand how to go about it, but there are still those out there who are just not getting it. These guides will definitely help shed some much-needed “green” light on the subject.
If you’ve never visited the site Ecologue, you must. They rock!
Ecologue is a website devoted to the benefits of living eco-consciously and creating a greener home. Whether you’re a newbie to green living, or just seeking new ideas, this site has it all. They offer many different topics from tips and suggestions to great eco-cleaning products. They have it all covered for us.
TheGreenGuide has compiled the top 10 ways consumers can help reduce the 22 tons of carbon dioxide each of us produce in the United States, (annually). Try their small and not-so-small steps and you’ll help ensure a more comfortable future for our planet.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Friedbeef 10.22.08 at 1:46 am
Thanks for sharing – I particularly like Treehugger myself
Jeremy 10.22.08 at 2:11 am
Great article; I’m glad people take the time to write things like this. Once someone runs their eyes over it they’ll remember the next time they have to get rid of one of these items.
I’m surprised you didn’t bring up CRT monitors and tube TV’s! Those things are horribly toxic once they break and there’s a massive number that will be thrown away in the next five years. It’s important that people find a responsible recycler for these electronics as well because a lot of components get shipped to China (especially a province called Guiyu) where they’re disassembled in a really unhealthy way. You can find staggering pictures of this area with mountains of computers piled up, CRT monitors laying broken in ancient irrigation canals, etc.
You made digg, btw
Chaya 10.22.08 at 3:11 am
very interesting article, i’ll make sure to share this with my friends
Jiff bean 10.22.08 at 6:31 am
These are some very good tips, ones that hopefully people will follow!
Jiff
http://www.internet-privacy.pl.tc
Kristen Banker 10.22.08 at 7:34 am
Jeremy,
We have a previous post that offers the best ways to recycle your electronic waste. Have a look. http://www.modernecohomes.com/blog/recycling/how-to-recycle-electronic-waste/
Jason Clements 10.22.08 at 5:16 pm
Another great article – good job. We can all do our small part to make a BIG DIFFERENCE. Great tip about peppercorns instead of mothballs – that is one I can use. I change the oil in my cars and can recycle it at my local O’Reilly’s Auto. They are everywhere throughout the midsection of the US; and I am certain that there is a comparable place to recycle oil on the west coast and northeast. Thanks for the tips.
Alex Ion 01.13.09 at 5:29 pm
If only more people would embrace the greener way.
These look like a great list. Thanks for sharing!
Uncle B 01.27.09 at 10:46 am
Americans are locked into a lot of old British habits and notions from 200 years ago or more. The width of rail systems is one that costs the environment dearly. The other , and more apparent, is the front lawn! We need to dig them up and plant food instead! If we planted potatoes in place of grass, we could make Vodka in the fall, and not feel the sting of the (GRD) great republican depression at all! Or, we could fuel our existing cars, or, we could fuel high efficiency cars, or, we could eat well, a full tummy in GRD times is a good thing, or, we could feed the soon to be starving masses of urbanites as the food and food distributing corporations fail to meet payrolls and go out of business! We should be able to “rent” our lawn spaces to enterprising and otherwise unemployed Americans, for gardening, for a return in veggies in the fall! This idea may not seem worth the trouble to well heeled folk just yet, but as the true economic realities of the destruction of the Bush Empire are revealed by the Obama administration, we will realize that the depth and darkness of this disease, the GRD upon us, is greater than ever before admitted, and will have profound, paradigm shifting effect on the American soul and change our very way of life. It will be during this realization that the changes necessary for survival will be adopted. Solar energy will be recognized as “perpetual” and most desirable, as will wind, wave, tidal and geothermal energy sources. After the convulsion, forced on Americans by oil shortages and high prices, America will rise like a Phoenix from it’s own ash, a reborn society with sustainable, realistic and nature friendly goals, with a world to convert to the new paradigm!