Municipal Options for Household Hazardous Waste

Although industry and consumers make decisions about producing and buying hazardous products, it's usually left up to municipalities to safely dispose of the leftovers. This can be an expensive proposition, but the alternatives (water and soil contamination, costly cleanups) are not so lovely either.

So while you're waiting for your product stewardship^* lobbying efforts to be successful, what's a municipality to do? A good start is an education program designed to encourage residents to:

• increase their awareness of the dangers of using and throwing away hazardous products,
• reduce their purchase of hazardous materials,
• use up the hazardous products they do have.

A successful, ongoing education program will reduce the hazardous materials that a municipality must handle.

In terms of disposing of these special wastes properly, the most common programs are one-day events and permanent depots. Various Saskatchewan communities have held household hazardous waste collection events over the years. Lloydminster's Toxic Round-up Day program has been going for 11 years.

Saskatoon has held two—in 1991 and 1997. A citizen's group in North Battleford hosted a few household hazardous waste days in the early '90s. Regina sponsored two events a year from 1988 until 1996 when the program was discontinued in favour of a cheaper education program.

One-day events require a lot of planning to make them a success. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality website (formerly the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission) has a comprehensive section on how to organize a household hazardous waste event.

Larger Canadian cities are more likely to have a permanent depot for citizens to use to drop off hazardous wastes. Edmonton's Eco-Station (search on "ecostation") was the first permanent drop off site for household hazardous wastes in Canada. Edmonton now has two such sites. They also combine it with recycling and yard waste drop off, a paint exchange area and a bulky item drop off. Calgary uses its fire halls as drop off sites for hazardous materials. They also have a one-day collection event, a drop off site at their landfill, and a paint exchange once a year. Winnipeg uses a local waste contractor's site for its hazardous waste depot. The site is open to the public two Saturdays a month from April to November.

Permanent depots require a specialized facility that meets storage regulations for hazardous wastes. Initally more expensive, they offer a higher level of service to citizens than one-day events.

^* For a discussion of product stewardship, visit Environment Canada's page on Extended Producer Responsibility & Stewardship

[Source: September 2000 WasteWatch)

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