Fall 2004
Houshold Hazards
by Michelle McRory
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Inside the building of the Disposal of Toxics Program in Bellingham, the smell of
chemicals hangs so thick that breathing becomes a task. The room contains bins over-
flowing with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and disinfectants. In a separate area, old paint cans line a table the length of the wall. Boxes of spent fluorescent lights reach halfway to the ceiling, and a cluster of car batteries sits next to a box of dirty rags coated in solvent.
Last year, 413,529 pounds of similar waste moved through the site, said Charles
Sullivan, a hazardous-waste specialist at the facility. Household use produced more than
80 percent of that waste.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average home can accumulate as much as 100 pounds of hazardous waste each year. The EPA, however, does not manage household hazardous waste.
Household hazardous waste is not regulated for three reasons, said Dave
Waddell, the lead environmental investigator for the King County Hazardous Waste Mangement Facility.
“It’s a question of scale,” Waddell said. “There are just too many people to monitor.”
Second, businesses, compared to households, tend to routinely use hazardous products, and in larger amounts, which makes them easier to regulate.
Individual households, on the other hand, buy products in varying quantities and use them sporadically. This makes it difficult to determine who has acted illegally.
The last and most significant reason why the government doesn’t regulate household hazardous waste is the psychological aspect, Waddell said.
People cannot identify with big businesses. People can, however, identify with Jane and Joe Schmo from down the road who have just been caught storing their household waste incorrectly. Being targeted on an individual scale is more personal, so people feel infringed upon when the government attacks the little guy, Waddell said.
Because of these reasons, 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste a year is left
virtually unnoticed, according to the EPA. Although organizations like the Disposal of
Toxics Program offer free disposal of household hazardous waste, some still improperly discard it.
Once a person or business is not using the product for its intended purpose, then it is
considered illegal use, Waddell said.
For example, the intended purpose of Drano is to be poured down the drain in small amounts. But if a business or resident dumps the contents of an entire bottle or multiple bottles down the drain, the act is illegal.
Citizens caught illegally disposing hazardous products can be charged, fined or
sentenced to jail, Waddell said.
The punishment is severe because of the high threats household hazardous waste poses in the waste stream.
Waddell said it is difficult, however, to trace an individual to an illegal activity, especially when the hazardous material already is in the waste stream.
Local governments know people can pour anything down the drain, so they try to increase hazardous-waste awareness by educating citizens.
“The challenge is to communicate with people in a way that is not threatening and not like the government is interfering with their lives,” Waddell said.
Lisa Friend, the special projects coordinator at RE Sources in Bellingham, also educates citizens about the dangers of hazardous waste.
“I try to teach people to read labels,” Friend said.
Friend has a stack of laminated labels she uses in her education programs to encourage people not to purchase hazardous products because of the dangers associated with them.
The label for paint thinner reads: “Vapor harmful. May affect the brain or nervous system, causing dizziness, headache or nausea. Causes eye, skin and throat irritation. Do not breathe vapors or mist.”
At the Disposal of Toxics Program, Sullivan makes his living handling an array of hazardous chemicals marked with warning labels but said he considers pesticides the most dangerous.
“I don’t like dealing with them,” Sullivan said. “It’s like dealing with death.”
The dangers of household hazardous waste may not be obvious, but some household products can harm sanitation workers and contaminate septic tanks or wastewater-treatment systems if poured down drains or toilets.
Besides not knowing the dangers of improper disposal, many people don’t consider what could happen when products are combined, Friend said.
For example, two common household items — chlorine bleach and ammonia — become a fatal poison when mixed. Even different brands of the same product may contain ingredients that could react when mixed.
“Most people just have no idea of what to do with the waste,” Waddell said.
Unfortunately, people end up stockpiling household hazardous products in basements or garages.
This behavior is common among citizens, but unwanted and unused products have a proper place. Every county in Washington has a hazardous-waste program, Waddell said, and the best phone calls these facilities receive are from people asking what to do with their hazardous waste.