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Household Hazardous Waste
 General
Household hazardous waste should
NEVER be placed in garbage, recycling, or yard waste carts.
U.S. households generate more than 2 million tons of hazardous waste each year.
The average household stores from 3 to 10 gallons of hazardous waste.
Although most of the products' labels listed here do not usually
contain the word "hazardous", they are just as hazardous as any industrial waste. Potential hazardous chemicals in these products can be:
Toxic:
poisonous or lethal when ingested, touched or inhaled even in small quantities (rat poison, cleaning fluids, pesticides, bleach)
Flammable:
easily ignites (lighter fluid, spot and paint removers)
Corrosive:
eats away materials and living tissue by chemical action (oven and toilet bowl cleaners)
Reactive:
creates an explosion or produces deadly vapors (bleach mixed with ammonia cleaners)
Careless use and disposal of these substances contaminate our food, soil, water, and air; and seriously threaten the ecosystems on which we depend.
Household hazardous wastes (HHW) should never be thrown into the trash or washed down the household or storm drains. Hazardous chemicals can "pass through" treatment processes or storm drains and get discharged into the environment. This occurs because wastewater treatment plants are not designed to remove hazardous chemicals from wastewater, and storm drains flow directly to the Bay without any treatment at all. HHW thrown into the garbage can injure workers during collection or mix with other chemicals when landfilled. Groundwater used for drinking or irrigation can be contaminated when waste products are poured onto or seep into the ground.
Follow this link for
proper HHW disposal.
Your
Option
All hazardous wastes, including solvents, cleaners and pesticides, can be taken
to the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District's facility at 4797 Imhoff Place,
Martinez. Call 1-800-646-1431 for information and hours or visit the district's
website at
www.centralsan.org.
Recycling Options
Oil/Anti-freeze
Many auto service stations, auto parts stores and oil changers accept used motor
oil and oil filters for recycling.
Call Contra Costa County's recycling hotline at 1-800-750-4096 for your nearest
location.
Option 1:
Motor oil is a household
hazardous waste that can be recycled curbside:
• Pour used motor oil into Valley Waste
Management-provided containers. Call 925-935-8900 to request one.
• Place the container beside your burgundy recycling cart.
• 2 gallons maximum of oil per pickup.
Option 2:
You may recycle used
motor oil, as well as anti-freeze at the Walnut Creek Recycling Center, for a
fee. Operated by Valley Waste Management, the Center is located at 480 Lawrence
Way, Walnut Creek. Call VWM at 925-935-8900 for more information. Open 8:30 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
E-Waste (televisions, monitors, & electronics)
State law prohibits putting CRT-containing
devices (computer monitors and TVs) in the garbage.
CRT devices are accepted free of charge as reuse items during either of your
area's two annual Reuse & Cleanup collections. You may set out up to five (5)
electronic waste items (computer processor, keyboard, mouse, printers, etc.) for
this collection.
Pacific Rim Recycling will accept, at no charge, CCCSWA service area residents'
computer equipment and TVs at its Benicia facility, 3690 Sprig Road, from 8 a.m.
to 1 p.m., Monday - Friday. Maximum of five (5) items per car.
If you cannot wait for a reuse collection, a curbside pickup of electronic waste
is available for a fee through Allied Waste Services. Call 925-603-1144, ext.1
to arrange a pickup. The fee covers disassembly, removal and recycling of
hazardous materials.
Cell Phones
Cell phones may be recycled at stores that sell them. Please contact your local
phone store for more information.
Batteries
For information on our new battery recycle program, click
here!
Rechargeable batteries can be returned to stores that sell rechargeable
batteries.
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Resources
Non-Toxic cleaning
alternatives
Proper HHW
Disposal
Oil Recyclers
E-Waste
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