The Golden Triangle Regional Solid Waste Management Authority and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality will be sponsoring their annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day this Saturday. Household hazardous wastes are collected because if they are not they could be placed in land fields. ln that case, hazardous gases they produce can harm humans and wildlife.
Acceptable items include: aerosols, household cleaners, automobile fluids, oil filters, tires (no rims), lighter fluid, batteries, chlorine, herbicides, pesticides, paint, rubber, cement, wood finish and rodent poison.
Unacceptable items include: explosives, munitions, infectious waste, and/or radioactive waste.
“We are just anxious for everyone to know that this is only available once a year, and each year it is held at a different location,” Mayor Mack Rutledge said. “About every three years, it is held in Starkville, and this usually takes place in the parking lot of the Henderson School Complex.
“Everyone should make special effort to dispose of these items. Neighbors should help each other out if they are making the trip to Columbus to drop off their household products.”
This Collection Day is for six counties in the surrounding area: Clay, Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Choctaw, Noxubee and Webster.
It is very important that everyone bring his or her hazardous household products to the collection site.
“All aerosol cans consist of hazardous products such as hairspray, deodorants, room deodorizers and starch,” Deborah Hester, manager of Columbus Lowndes Environmental and Recycle Office, said.
“Most people do not realize how many hazardous products they actually have in their home. For instance, nail polish remover is hazardous in large amounts. Car batteries contain lead and acid. Mercury thermometers are also harmful to the environment if disposed of in land fields,” Jimmy Sloan at GTR Solid Waste Management Authority, said.
“You can basically say that everything under your sink is a hazardous waste,” Sloan added.
“I recommend that everyone hold onto all of their hazardous household products until we hold our annual Collection Day. People should store them in a garage or a shed away from children,” Hester said.
The average family in one year will accumulate 50 to 75 aerosol cans. An average of 5-15 tons of hazardous materials from people’s homes in the nearby area is hauled off each year.
“The contractor that we currently have hired to dispose of the household wastes is called the Care Environmental,” Sloan said. “Different products are disposed of differently. We recycle everything that can possibly be recycled, such as tires, oil and batteries. Products such as paint will be taken and burned. Each product is disposed of in the safest manner possible.”
There are many things that people can do to help.
“This project is made up of a lot of people pulling together to do a good thing,” Hester said.
“If anyone knows of an elderly person who isn’t able to get out of the house, you could stop by and see if he or she has anything they would like to send to the collection site,” Hester added.
If anyone would like to donate their time and help at the collection site, they should call Deborah Hester at 329-5346 or 386-3146.
The event will be held on Saturday from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the city of Columbus maintenance facility located at 2502 Bell Ave. in Columbus.
“This is the proper way to dispose of hazardous household wastes,” Sloan said. “It is free to the public. They can bring their hazardous products to us, and they won’t have to worry about them anymore.