Many Household Hazardous Waste recycling locations in Michigan are now open

If you’ve spent springtime decluttering your home and garage, now is the time to get rid of hazardous household items that you no longer need through locally sponsored collection programs. Many drop-off sites start collecting household hazardous waste (HHW) in the spring, and commonly close up for the year in the fall.

HHW includes products purchased and used every day in homes that can be harmful to people or the environment, if they are not handled properly.

“Many household products contain toxic chemicals that are not well suited for disposal via the regular trash, which goes to a solid waste landfill,” said Cindy Foster, household hazardous waste team lead at the Kalamazoo County Household Hazardous Waste Center. “Disposal of household hazardous waste in landfills can impact our groundwater and surface water,” added Rhonda Oyer, manager of the Solid Waste Section in the Materials Management Division at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). “When they are disposed in landfills, they can potentially leach out as the waste decomposes naturally, then pass through the landfill leachate treatment systems and enter rivers and lakes.”

To see if a material is an HHW, look for words such as “warning,” “caution,” “flammable,” “toxic,” “poison,” “corrosive,” “oxidizer,” etc., on the labels.  If you have leftover, unwanted household materials that are hazardous, it is best to routinely take them to a local HHW collection, if one is available.

Never pour HHW into a storm drain or down a drain in your home. And do not put rechargable batteries in the trash as they are reactive, can easily ignite and cause a fire in the collection truck, recycling facility, or at the landfill.

Check out EGLE’s HHW webpage to find local collection options. The directory was recently updated with the support of staff from the Kalamazoo County Household Hazardous Waste Center. If a local drop-off site isn’t available, check out the resources specific for the various waste types noted on the webpage (batteries and electronics, beauty and aerosol products, chemicals and cleaning products, fuel and vehicle related wastes, etc.). Some of the commonly used resources for finding HHW collections include the following accessed from the HHW webpage:

Contact the collection program before making a trip to be sure they take your materials and that you have the HHW properly prepared for safe transport. Ask the collection for a do/do not take list of items they assist with diverting from landfills. Typically, they make these available online or have a handout that can be shared electronically upon request.

If you cannot find a local or retail collection, contact your trash hauler or local clerk to see if they know of options or have special instructions to ensure safe handling and disposal of the material in the regular trash.

Other hard to recycle items include discarded Styrofoam, mattresses, films/plastics (agricultural, boats), latex paint, small appliances, and textiles/carpet.

Learn more about recycling materials like cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, and metal from households at RecyclingRaccoons.org and Michigan.gov/RecyclingDirectory. Learn more about recycling materials commercially from non-households (businesses, hospitals, churches, etc., at Michigan.gov/RMMD and NextCycle Michigan.