Examples of Household Hazardous Waste and What to Do With It
While you might commonly think of chemical plants and production facilities when you hear the term "hazardous waste," the reality is that you likely have several things under your roof that fall into this ominous-sounding category. When it comes to managing your household waste, it's important that you're diligent about getting rid of the products that could pose an environmental threat. Placing these items in your garbage can be environmentally harmful, and dragging it to the curb might get them out of your house, but this is the improper way to deal with products of a hazardous nature. Here are some examples of common household hazardous waste that should never be tossed in your garbage can.
Cleaning Products
Many household cleaning products are considered to be hazardous waste -- just look at the warning signs on the bottles as proof. While you can typically dispose of empty cleaning product bottles in your recycling, you can't take this approach -- or throw them in the garbage -- when they're partially full. Hazardous cleaning products include bleach, polish for your silverware or appliances, toilet drain cleaner and other products of this nature. It's ideal to call a waste disposal company to inquire about safely disposing of these products. Your city's waste collector might also have a hazardous product drop-off day in which you can cart such products to a specified facility for safe disposal.
Auto-Related Products
It's easy to find many different examples of household hazardous waste in your garage that you use for your vehicle. Motor oil, for example, falls into this category -- while you'll use fresh oil to put in your vehicle, the dirty oil that you drain out during an oil change needs proper disposal. Other automotive products, such as coolant, brake fluid and even your old car battery, are all considered household hazardous waste. As with the cleaning products, look for a drop-off day or consider hiring a waste removal service, such as TransChem Environmental, if you have a large quantity of automotive products that require safe disposal.
Yard and Garden Products
Your garden shed will typically contain some products that are hazardous. Pesticide products and spray-on weed killers are hazardous and should be disposed of properly. Products that you use to eliminate backyard pests are also hazardous. Aerosol cans to kill flying ants, wasps or other pests, as well as poisonous products for mice and ants, should all prompt you to treat them as hazardous waste and dispose of them accordingly.