HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE
Sean
Brumley, Department of Earth Sciences,
University of South Alabama, Mobile, Al.
36688. Email: brumman2004@yahoo.com
In this paper, I determined that having a
Household
Hazardous Waste Day for Mobile
County
was successful. Mobile County
will recycle the household hazardous waste that was brought in by the
participants. Also, Mobile County
saved money by re-using the products as well. Just like the other 3,000
collection programs around the country, Mobile
County will need to keep
hosting
their own “Amnesty Days” to keep having beneficial solutions to their
environment and saving money by recycling old household hazardous
materials.
This project also showed that Mobile
may need to place more paint waste bins around the county because there
was
more paint brought to the event then any other hazardous material.
Also,
flammable liquids were important hazardous materials that were brought
in. Bins
for these hazardous materials will need to be placed around the county
as well.
With bins placed around the county, residents will easily reach them
without
driving across the county or city. I also explained that if residents
of the
county understand more of why it is important to recycle these
waste materials that our environment will be more of a safe environment
for our
health.
Keywords: Household
Hazardous Waste
Day, Hazardous material, Mobile
County
Introduction
There are many
hazardous waste products that people trash unsafely. These hazardous
materials
can harm creeks, rivers, or any other water areas. Most people have
plenty of
household chemicals in their homes that are either thrown out on the
ground or
washed down the drain. According to the Environment Protection Agency,
the
average household contains around 20 pounds of household hazardous
materials
(ACF 2003). Some basic household
hazardous waste would include air fresheners and deodorizers,
antifreeze,
bleach, paint, paint thinner, and many more (North Carolina Cooperative
Extension Service 1996). Residents of Dog River Watershed need to
understand
that these hazardous waste materials can harm the waters of Dog
River if they are thrown out
unsafely, either on the ground or through storm drains. Hazardous
materials are
anything that may be corrosive or toxic or may react to explosion or
fire under
certain conditions (ACF 2003). Corrosive materials can have a chemical
reaction
and can cause burns or other irritation to skin. Toxic waste can cause
irritation of the skin as well as cancer or any other illness
(University of
Missouri 2005).
There
are many
ways to keep household hazardous waste off the ground and out of the
storm
drains. There are ways to trash them legally and safely. To safely
trash paint,
open the lid and let the paint dry. You can use cat litter to help
speed the
drying process. Once dried, you can safely put it in your trash (OCRRA
2006).
Recycling these hazardous materials is the best method. Either give the
hazardous material to other people for re-use or donate them to public
waste bins
for the city or county to re-use the waste product. There are plenty of
household hazardous wastes that can be recycled such as motor oil,
solvents,
and car batteries (EPA of Ohio 1998). Many counties in the U.S.
have “Amnesty Day” or “Hazardous Waste Day.” There are over 3,000
collection
programs or “Household Hazardous Waste Days” throughout the country
(U.S. EPA
2006). State or city officials host this
day for residents to bring their household hazardous waste materials to
be
recycled in a proper manner. In Florida, the state recycled over
984,000 pounds
of household hazardous waste materials out of 107 “Amnesty Days” in a
one year
period (EPA: Section 3, Selecting Waste Management Methods 2006). Mobile
County has had household
hazardous
waste days in the past, but not in the last 3 years. On April 8, 2006 Mobile
County had set a date to
have
another “Household Hazardous Waste Day.” Finally, Mobilians
can participate to help out the environment and their county funds by
recycling. In 2003 Mobile
County hosted their
“Household
Hazardous Waste Day” in an area perfect for participants to attend this
event
easily. It was located on the Greater Gulf Coast Fairgrounds in Mobile,
almost exactly in the middle of the county where participants didn’t
have to drive
across county to participate (Fig. 1).
Research
Questions
There were a few
questions I wanted to answer about the household hazardous waste in Dog
River
Watershed and areas in Mobile
County.
On Saturday of April 8, 2006
I intended to ask these questions: What is the population percentage of
Dog River
residents that participated
in the Household Hazardous Waste Day? What household hazardous waste
was
brought to the event more than other household hazardous waste, and do
we have
enough hazardous waste bins for that waste material? Finally, were
there enough
participants or enough hazardous waste material recycled to benefit Dog
River
Watershed and the rest of Mobile
County?
By benefits, I mean it costs the city to host household hazardous waste
days,
and if it is not beneficial, then it is not worth the money to host
household
hazardous waste days.
Methods
On
April 8, 2006 for Mobile
County’s “Household
Hazardous Waste
Day” I was going to bring a map of Dog River Watershed and ask
participants if
they lived in this area. This would help give me the percentage of Dog
River residents that
attended.
Also, I was going to bring a notepad and pencil to mark down what
household
hazardous waste that was brought in for recycling. This would help me
answer my
question which waste material was mostly brought in and does the county
have
enough waste bins distributed across the county for this waste
material. And
finally, I was going to get the data collected for the entire day and
compare
them to other counties or cities that have had household hazardous
waste days
in the past and to see if Mobile’s was beneficial for them.
Unfortunately
Mobile
decided to cancel their “Household Hazardous Waste Day.”
I decided that some of my original research
questions can help me realize that this research can help Mobile
County to understand why
they
should have household hazardous waste days at least once a year.
Because of the
cancellation of the “Household Hazardous Waste Day,” I can now collect
the data
from Mobile County’s
2003 “Hazardous Waste Day” and compare their data from other state’s
“Household
Hazardous Waste Day.” This should help answer if Mobile’s
2003 “Household Hazardous Waste Day” was beneficial or not.
Results
With
the 2003
report for Mobile County’s
Household Hazardous Waste Day Collection, I figured what household
hazardous
waste materials were mostly brought to the event. There was a
tremendous amount
of material brought in such as: paint, antifreeze, mercury, flammable
liquids,
propane cylinders, pesticide poison, and many other household hazardous
wastes.
There were 88,771 pounds of hazardous waste that residents brought in
for
recycling on March 8, 2003.
The number one hazardous waste product that was brought in was paint,
over
62,100 pounds of paint. There were 1,600 pounds of flammable liquids,
800
pounds of antifreeze, 3,530 pounds of pesticide, over 2,000 pounds of
corrosive
or oxidizers waste, and many other hazardous wastes was collected.
These waste
materials were disposed of properly and over 2,005 gallons of Aaron Oil
were
recycled and 448 Interstate car batteries were recycled as well (ACF
2003).
With
the help of the media to attract residents to understand the harm these
hazardous materials can do, the outcome of the event can be more
successful.
Local news stations, newspaper, and radio helped announced the 2003 Mobile
County “Household Hazardous
Waste
Day” collection. Local news stations helped residents understand how
household
hazardous material could harm their waters and also how the city could
save
money from recycling these hazardous materials. The newspaper also
helped
explain and notify residents about where this event will occur. Radio
stations
helped by shortly explaining the harm of the hazardous material and
also spoke
of where this event was going to occur (ACF 2003).
With their help, 691 residents participated
in this event. That doesn’t seem much according to the rest of the
population
of Mobile County.
In fact that’s less than 1% of the county’s residents. But when you
look back
at the data, less than 1% of the population of Mobile
County recycled over 88,000
pounds
of household hazardous waste.
When
you consider Florida’s
household
hazardous waste days in one year, they collected over 984,000 pounds.
Less than
1% of the population of Mobile
County
collected almost 9% of Florida’s
107 household hazardous waste days. Mobile
hasn’t recycled any household hazardous waste since 2003. If Mobile
can collect at least 88,000 pounds of household hazardous waste a year,
then
that’s 264,000 pounds of household hazardous waste every 3 years the
city could
possibly collect. Basically, Mobile
hasn’t collected 264,000 pounds of household hazardous waste that could
save
the county some money by recycling these wastes. The county and city
officials
may need to understand that both financially and environmentally
“Household
Hazardous Waste Days” can be very beneficial.
Discussion
Again, Mobile
County had tremendous
accomplishments at their “Household Hazardous Waste Day” in 2003. They
received
over 88,000 pounds of household hazardous waste that could have been
thrown out
unsafely. With the help of the media, participants understood the
reason why
hazardous waste should be thrown out safely. Even though that was 3
years ago, Mobile County
officials need to understand
that year was very beneficial environmentally because of the amount of
household hazardous waste that was collected that could have been
disposed of
illegally into our waters.
Paint
was found to be most common in the county to be recycled during
“Household
Hazardous Waste Collection Day.” Mobile
may need to place more waste bins around the county just for paint or
paint
related material. Paint waste bins located throughout the city helps
residents
to be able to take a short drive to the bins instead of driving across
the
county to the only paint waste bin Mobile
County has. The same should
be done
for flammable liquids such as oil, gas, or lighter fluids. Once Mobile
County has another
“Household
Hazardous Waste Day,” then my original methods can be researched and
determine
where some of these waste bins ought to be placed around the county.
Having
a “Household Hazardous Waste Day” benefits the watershed by
at least eliminating some of the waste material to reach the
waterways.
They instead are safely being recycled. Keep Mobile Beautiful is a
group of
people who organizes safe environmental issues that help residents keep
their
environment clean. Also, city officials
need to
understand the benefits that the city or county gets when they host
amnesty
days. When
that day comes, then hopefully
this research can be further determined how successful “Household
Hazardous
Waste Days” are here in Mobile
County
and in the Dog River Watershed. Without amnesty days, there are more
possibilities for hazardous waste to be dumped
into
our waterways. Media, residents, or anyone else who understands the
importance
of the watershed need to stand up and explain to others that they are
killing
our waterways if we don’t keep helping to collect and recycle hazardous
waste.
References Cited
(ACF) Alabama
Coastal Foundation: “Household Hazardous Waste Day Collection of March 8, 2003.” By
Tom Hutchings and Neil Johnston. 2003.
North
Carolina Cooperative
Extension Service: Publication Number H-368-1. Revised in 1996.
(OCRRA) Onondaga County
Resource Recovery
Agency. Household Hazardous Collection Day.
“Sound
Solutions for Safely Disposing
Household Hazardous Waste Materials.” http://www.ocrra.org/hhwinfo.html.
2006
Ohio Environment Protection Agency: “A Guide to
Safe
Management of Household Hazardous Waste.” www.epa.state.oh.us
Updated 4/98
University
of Missouri
Extensions: “Household Hazardous Products” Published by University
of Missouri Outreach and
Extension
Household Hazard. Copyright by:
Environmental
Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA). 2005.
(U.S EPA) United States Environmental Protection
Agency.
Household Hazardous Waste, “Steps to Safe Management.” http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/househld/hhw.htm.
Last Update: Feb. 22, 2006.
Yahoo Maps: Yahoo, Inc.
“maps.yahoo.com”
2006.
