I had a toxic relationship with my garage. It was ugly in there. Cans
of half-used paint that were there when we moved in. Pesticide – which I never
use. Old building supplies, like hardened bags of plaster and grout that had
never been opened but had gotten damp. A bottle of chalk for marking lines at
the soccer field (we don’t play soccer). And a rusting can of some kind of tar
stuff for patching the roof – stick on the outside and too scary to actually
open.
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Everyone knows (I hope) not to throw these things in the
garbage – they will surely leak into the ecosystem – groundwater supplies, the
watershed, wetlands, the Bay. The paint cans and containers are probably
recyclable (steel?) but what’s inside is
bad news. Please – don’t even think about pouring it into the gutter or
down your storm drain. Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200
for that one (or you should).
But still – it seemed onerous to deal with the toxics. So
there they sat – for six years. Six years of that corner of the garage out of
bounds for storage or use. Six years while the cans and contents got a little funkier
and leakier. All in all, not a good scene, and not very green nor healthful,
either.
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But I got a flyer in the mail from www.household-hazardouswaste.org one day. It said “Free drop-off” of
hazardous materials for county residents. The flyer listed the hours and days
the facility was open. So first we put down a sheet of cardboard to catch any
drips, then loaded up the back of the car. There is a limit to how much you can
take to drop off, but a typical household is not likely to have more than 15
gallons of paint at one time.
The car ride took longer than the drop-off. And it was more
painful, too, because the toxics were some nasty, bad-smelling stuff. I felt
like we were losing brain cells just driving it across town and over the bridge
– windows rolled down.
The drop-off? Completely
painless, free, and so fast that I wondered why I had waited six years. It went
like this:
Drive into driveway. Wait for car ahead of us – maybe a one
minute wait.
Nice man gives us a short form to fill out with name,
address and what we were dropping off in general.
We roll forward and a couple of workers open the trunk and
take everything away, sorting it themselves. This takes about two minutes.
They close the trunk and say goodbye. We drive away, not
five minutes in total, and not a penny spent. We can still smell the fumes for
a few minutes, but open windows clear the air.
We go spend the rest of our day frivolously.
So what’s holding you back from getting rid of toxic waste
in your basement, backyard, garage or back porch?
Here are the addressed of Contra Costa and Alameda sites. No
appointment necessary. Check the web site for more information.
4797 Imhoff Place, Martinez
(800) 646-1431
East County Facility
2550 Pittsburg-Antioch Highway, Antioch
(925) 756-1990
(800) 646-1431
East County Facility
2550 Pittsburg-Antioch Highway, Antioch
(925) 756-1990
2100 East 7th Street
41149 Boyce Road
2091 W. Winton Ave.
5584 La Ribera Street
More information is online at www.stopwaste.org and http://www.co.contra-costa.ca.us/depart/cd/recycle/options/v5951.htm
2 comments:
Julia,
The roofing tar is actually rather benign from a chemical standpoint--nasty from a goo perspective but not that bad. (You can actually use some of that to line flower pots and redwood planters if your roof is sound...)
Up here in CoCoCo at the Imhoff facility in Martinez one can either get rid of all the hazardous products or pick up free ones. They always have tons of free paint and stains, often including spray paints. There are usually a variety of pool chemicals, cleaning supplies, dish washing detergent, fertilizers, garden sprays, changing on a daily basis. Because it is such a popular program they limit people to fifteen items per day, but no one checks that closely.
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