Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Day is coming up in Biddeford on Saturday, Sept. 11. Residents of Biddeford, Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Scarborough may bring hazardous waste to the Recycling Center at 371 Hill St. in Biddeford from 8 .m. to noon. The event is for households only, not businesses. Regular recycling services will not be open that day so that we may devote all our efforts to getting you in and out the door quickly.
It’s a great feeling to get the garage or basement cleaned out while disposing of materials responsibly. Volunteers from the Recycling & Waste Management Commission will be on hand to direct you and unload your vehicle.
Hazardous wastes are materials that are harmful to our health and the environment. If they end up in nature, they pollute the water, earth and air, contaminating our food and water sources and poisoning wildlife. This material also can place extra stress on water treatment
facilities, which attempt to rid our drinking water of toxins. Never ever dump hazardous waste down the drain, in the trash, or outdoors — save it for a collection event, like the one we have coming up!
Examples of household hazardous waste include pest killers, chemical herbicides like Roundup, lawn fertilizers, insect killers, pool chemicals, rechargeable batteries, paint removers, all types of fluorescent light bulbs, adhesives, anything that contains mercury, acids,
vehicle fluids like antifreeze, brake fluid, oil and old gasoline, moth balls, rat poison, solvents and chemical cleaners. Look for the words caution, warning, poison, corrosive, toxic, flammable, danger, or the skull & crossbones logo to determine if a product
is hazardous.
Here are some tips to help your volunteer crew from the Recycling & Waste Management Commission on this busy day: Keep materials in their original containers so that environmental engineers can see what they are and sort them out. Do not mix chemicals. If a package
is leaking or rusting, wrap in a plastic bag and place in a bucket or tub.
And this one is important — once you’re inside the building and in the hazardous materials collection area, you can’t get out of your vehicle. That means volunteers need to unload your car for you. So it’s best if you have materials properly set aside. One time I picked up paint that someone didn’t want to get rid of, because it was right next to the stuff that needed to go! It was all in the trunk together and there was no way for me to tell the difference.
We’ll accept paint, thanks to Maine’s PaintCare program. But paint can also be brought anytime to any local paint store that participates in PaintCare, which you can find at paintcare.org. Locally, this includes Sherwin-Williams. This remarkable program is well on its way to collecting a million gallons of unused, old and expired paint, keeping it out of Maine’s environment!
Lastly, do not eat or smoke while transporting hazardous materials. You don’t want to end up like that skull and crossbones.
Coming up, the Recycling Center will also be hosting a free paper shredding event, on Saturday, Oct. 9 from 9 .m. to noon. Clear out those file cabinets and join us!
I hope to see you on Saturday, Sept. 11! For more information, contact the Biddeford Public Works Department at 282-1579 or visit biddefordmaine.org/2905/Household-Hazardous-Waste-Day.
Marty Grohman is chair of Biddeford’s Recycling & Waste Management Commission.
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