Household hazardous waste: What you can do

Published 6:00 am Friday, June 23, 2017

What do you do with dead batteries?

What about leftover paint from your last home-improvement project?

Do you know the proper process for getting rid of old household cleansers?

If you were being totally honest with yourself, do you even really care?

This is the kind of information Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful seeks to learn in a survey posted to its Facebook page. The survey consists of four questions that take only a few minutes to answer, but it could have an impact on household hazardous waste disposal in the county.

When you consider the impact improper disposal is already having, this short survey could seem even more important.

“We want to collect information to share with them so that they will understand — and so we will better understand — how much the community actually knows about household hazardous waste and what they are doing with it,” explained Lynne Hart, executive coordinator of KALB.

By “them,” Hart means the people in charge of making sure Athens and Limestone County have a safe, legal way to collect and dispose of household hazardous waste.

In Huntsville, that means collection days at the Handle with Care Collection Center on the first Saturday of each month. The Handle with Care program is free to all residents of Madison County, the city of Huntsville and the city of Madison. In Decatur, collection days are on the second Saturday of each month.

Athens and Limestone County have no program.

According to Hart, the first and last collection day was held almost 10 years ago in 2008.

“It can be very expensive to have one of these collection days,” she said.

That’s why she and others are working to have the city and county split the funding for another collection day. Hart said they have received a lot of positive feedback from officials this year, which helped prompt the idea for a survey to show community need and support for a collection day.

“It’s a frustrating situation,” Hart said. “People want to do the right thing but they have no means to do the right thing.”

Hart said that while collection days can be expensive – the last one cost approximately $24,000 – not having them is expensive, too.

“These are chemicals that are very dangerous to the environment,” she said. “When we put them in landfills or dump them out in our backyards or pour them down the drains, it has consequences,” Hart said. “It has expensive consequences.”

Ruby McCartney, plant manager at the Athens Recycling Center, agreed. People often use the center and community recycling centers throughout the county as illegal dumping sites.

“People don’t realize they are risking the recycling center for that area,” McCartney said. “If it becomes too much of a problem, that area can lose their recycling center and then they’re even worse off.”

Hart stressed that funding is the only obstacle standing between the community and another collection day. Unfortunately, it will be fall of this year before Hart knows if the funding will be provided. If funding arrives, a collection day could happen as soon as late fall or next spring.

In the meantime, McCartney and assistant plant manager Keri Chalmers encourages residents to call local officials and let them know safe and legal disposal methods are needed in Athens and Limestone County.

Hart also encourages residents to go to KALB’s Facebook page, complete the survey and share the link with others. All responses remain anonymous.