DIY Network

Royal Road Trip: Chemical Collection Centers Royal Road Trip: Chemical Collection Centers From "Talking Dirty With the Queen of Clean" episode DQOC-125

Figure A

The average household has an accumulation of paint cans, oil cans and a variety of other chemical containers gathering dust on shelves (figure A). Many of the solutions used to improve the appearance of the home are considered household hazardous waste and shouldn't be tossed in the trash because they are either a health hazard or a danger to the environment. These containers pile up under the sink, sit in the garage and hide in the basement until you move or do a thorough cleanup. Often landfills won't take these poisons, so some communities have special days when homeowners can turn in their hazardous waste. In Knoxville, Tennessee, however, these products can be dropped off year round.

advertisement

	Figure B
	Figure C

The drop-off list is long and includes batteries of all kinds, ranging from car to watch batteries. Paints -- alkyd, oil-based, latex and spray varieties -- are accepted, along with pesticide aerosols, acids, alkaline cleaners and pesticides of all sorts. Workers at the drop-off site see large numbers of paint cans, some of them as much as three decades old. Often homeowners don't realize that latex paint is nontoxic and can be thrown away with landfill trash if it has dried out (figure B).

Paint cans are packed in 30-gallon drums to be hauled to hazardous-waste facilities. They are packed in what's called a "lab pack": that is, placed in a container and surrounded with vermiculite to prevent the interior cans from jostling or spilling (figure C). If a spill should occur, the vermiculite will absorb the liquids. After being sealed tightly and carefully labeled, they are then stored in a holding area until they are picked up and shipped to a hazardous-waste-disposal company. The storage building where they are stored has a special floor designed to catch accidental leaks, and the ceiling is complete with a fire-suppression system. When they leave the building, they are once again sorted before departure.

Some chemicals are incinerated at high temperatures. Corrosives such as muriatic acid, bases such as ammonia and oxidizers such as bleach are neutralized by "aqueous treatment." This is a process that combines acids and bases in a water bath where they neutralize one another, and metals that precipitate out are pulled out and handled accordingly.

Figure D

Close to 400,000 pounds of hazardous household chemicals are dropped off each year. Containers of motor oil and antifreeze are disposed of onsite. A machine removes Freon™ from appliances and air conditioners. Even fluorescent bulbs are gobbled up in a device that removes the mercury from the bulbs in seconds (figure D).

Before bringing any substance to recycling centers, hazardous-waste coordinator Mike Glovier offers the following tips:

• Transport materials upright in a box to prevent spills.

• If they're leaking, put them in a plastic bag or bucket for transport.

• Never mix incompatible chemicals like ammonia and bleach.

So take a look around your house to see what kinds of things are lurking in the cupboards and on the shelves. If you don't know how to dispose of them properly and safely, contact your local environmental office for disposal information. If you garden, you may have garden-related containers that say it's okay to dispose of them in a landfill if prepared correctly. Always follow the instructions on the back of the container. Usually the instructions will require you to rinse the container and wrap it in several layers of newspaper before putting it in the trash.