All of this hazardous waste contains toxic elements that wind up in a land-fill and leach into the water table or otherwise enter our environment. So at the most basic level, anything toxic or corrosive is considered hazardous. That includes:
• oven cleaners
• drain cleaners
• wood polish
• metal polish
• toilet bowl cleaners
• tub, tile, and shower cleaners
• bleach
• pool chemicals
• motor oil, transmission fluid, and brake fluid
• carburetor and fuel injection system cleaners
• antifreeze
• air-conditioning refrigerant
• rat poison
• flea repellents
• mothballs
• bug sprays
• roach traps
• snail pellets
• weed killers
• adhesives and glues
• oil- or enamel-based paint
• wood stains
• paint thinners and turpentine
• paint strippers and removers
• photographic chemicals
• driveway sealer
• batteries
• mercury thermostats or thermometers
• fluorescent lightbulbs, which contain mercury
• incandescent lightbulbs, which contain lead
Flammable products, anything that can be ignited, are also considered hazardous waste. Things including:
• propane tanks and other compressed gas cylinders
• kerosene
• home heating oil
• diesel fuel
• gasoline and oil mixed together
• lighter fluid
• automotive starter fluid
Sadly, most people don’t realize that a fraction of these things are hazardous waste. And they also don’t realize that disposing of such products in their trash cans will reintroduce them one day to their environment, their children’s environment.
People usually have a lot of this stuff lying around. An average home can accumulate as much as 100 pounds of this hazardous waste—in the basement, in the garage, in sheds, and in closets.
So how do you dispose of hazardous waste? Responsibly, I hope. Many cities have a designated hazardous waste pickup day. It’s also quite easy to find drop-off locations. People regularly write me after watching the show Living with Ed: “I heard you talk about disposing of hazardous waste. I’m in Texas and we don’t have anything like that here. Where do you dispose in a place like Texas?” And I Google “hazardous waste pickup Texas.” Turns out there’s a place in Austin. So I e-mail them back, “You said you lived near Austin. There’s one in Austin. There’s one in Houston.” All you have to do is do a Google search for “hazardous waste” and your city, and you will find one in your area. “Hazardous waste Albany.” “Hazardous waste Schenectady.” You’re going to find a hazardous waste pickup or drop-off service in your city or very near your city.
I never throw away any of that stuff. I certainly don’t buy any non-rechargeable batteries. Occasionally we’ll get something that has them, and I use them until they run out. So I get a few without even purchasing them, and those have to be recycled maybe once a year. If one of the many compact fluorescent bulbs I have goes out, if it’s finally seen the end of its fifteen- to seventeen-year life, it has to be dealt with. I have a shoe box in the garage, and it takes me a year or so to fill it with batteries and things like that.
There are other options for dealing with hazardous waste, too, specialty programs. Let’s say you’ve got some leftover paint. You certainly don’t want to throw partially full paint cans in the trash. Regular oil-based paint and latex paint are hazardous waste. And even if you were using nontoxic, biodegradable paint, there’re better things to do with the leftovers than to send them to a landfill. Many cities have what’s called a paint exchange. You bring in your leftover paint. It gets sorted right there on the spot. And then people who need paint can get those leftovers for free, right then and there. Some cities also collect leftover paint and use it for their beautification efforts or to paint over graffiti. So you can find environmentally sound ways to get rid of almost anything.
COMPUTER AND ELECTRONICS RECYCLING
Household electronics items—like televisions, printers, fax machines, computer monitors, keyboards, computer mice, VCRs, cell phones—all these things are hazardous waste. In many cases, they can contain stuff like lead, mercury, cadmium, and chromium. Stuff you definitely don’t want leaching into your groundwater.
I know there’s a lot of pressure to upgrade this stuff. But I try to use a piece of electronic hardware as long as it’s functioning and current enough to just work. I stuck with Windows 98 for a long time—until it just didn’t work for what I needed to do. I had to upgrade to XP, and I had to get a new computer. But I try to stick with the technologies for as long as I can. And then I usually give my computer, which is still working well, since I take care of it myself, to a family member—a grown son or daughter, my young daughter—and recycle that way.
But when something finally craps out—a cell phone, a printer, a computer that can’t be fixed—that’s considered e-waste, electronic waste. And there are places that will take it.
There’s a very good e-waste bill that passed in California, which was the first state to adopt this sort of approach. There’s a premium, a deposit, that you pay for every monitor, every printer that you buy in California. It’s a small sum, like $5 for a monitor. And that deposit pays for the program. Basically, that stuff is taken back and the mercury is taken out, the lead is taken out, and then it’s recycled.
These old electronics items used to be shipped over to Asia to be refurbished and resold. But now it’s more cost effective to fully recycle the e-waste here in California.
Now I take my e-waste to SoCal Computer Recyclers in Harbor City. They have a big recycling facility, where I can drop off my e-waste. Also, they’ve got a lot of corporate accounts, so when some big company decides to replace thousands of PCs, all
