(Community Matters 188) Calhoun County's Next Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Set for May 18

What's the best way to get hazardous household waste out of your home without guessing, dumping, or risking your trash pickup rejecting it. Sarah Lundy from Calhoun County lays out what’s accepted at the upcoming Household Hazardous Waste, Appliances, Electronics, & Scrap Metal Collection.  Click to hear the details.

Episode Resources

Calhoun County Recycling and Solid Waste Website

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Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8:00 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.

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Transcript

Welcome And Event Overview

Richard Piet 0:02

Welcome to Community Matters. This is our get together Saturdays at 95.3 FM and anytime, Battle CreekPodcast.com, or you might type Community Matters Calhoun County in on your favorite podcast directory, and you'll find us there too. And can follow us. It's a service of Lakeview Ford Lincoln. What do you got laying around that you have to get rid of, but you know you can't just throw it out? And what if it is considered household hazardous waste? What do you do? Ah, well, coming up on Monday, May 18th, that's Monday, at Ketchum Field in Albion is your next opportunity to get rid of these things that you might need to get rid of. And Sarah Lundy's here from Calhoun County to talk to us about this event and what exactly that means. Hello, Sarah.

Sarah Lundy 0:58

Hello.

Richard Piet 0:59

Welcome back. So you do these, what are these, like once or twice a year?

Sarah Lundy 1:04

So we do two bigger events a year, and then we usually have one or two more household hazardous waste collections. But this year there's just three household hazardous waste collections. So this is number two. So make sure you don't miss it.

Richard Piet 1:17

Right.

Surprising Items You Can Bring

Richard Piet 1:18

Again, it is Monday, May 18th at Ketchum Field, and Albion will repeat that in just a minute. So what can we bring? We've got a long list of things, but what do people bring to these things that they might not have realized they can bring? And uh you hear about it.

Sarah Lundy 1:39

Well, it's a good way to get rid of things that you've had sitting around for a long time, but we can take propane gas tanks that are like gas grill size and smaller. So we know people that do a lot of camping, they end up with a lot of those small propane tanks, fire extinguishers. So sometimes we get those, we don't use it, it sits around for a long time, it loses its charge. It's a good way to get rid of those. You're also looking at your fluorescent light bulbs, ones that twist into your light fixture, but also the tube. Yeah, the tube lights as is another opportunity for those batteries, all kinds of batteries. So it can be rechargeable, it can be alkaline, it can be lithium. We take them all. And then we can do medications. And there's no rules with the medications because I know if you use medication drop boxes, some take this, some take that. We take everything liquids, inhalers, pills, controlled substances. We take it. We take the medications that you inject. We can also take sharps, but it needs to be in a hard plastic container. Those are some of the more common things, but we also take oil. Every you know, all the people that do their own oil changes for cars, for their lawnmowers. Everybody's getting everything ready to go for the summer, pulling the mustang out of the garage, that type of thing. Yep.

Richard Piet 3:01

I love it.

Sarah Lundy 3:03

Right? So everybody's getting everything tuned up, they all are gonna have oil that they want to get rid of, right? So antifreeze oil, oil filters, those can come too. We do oil-based paint and stain. So if you have any of that sitting around, and then also aerosols. So if you have spray paint, bug spray, cooking oil, even like cool the whipped cream that you spray out of a can. So we take it if it's empty, if it's full, if it's broken, doesn't matter. They take it and they can process it so the containers can be recycled.

Richard Piet 3:37

Man, that is a great list. And that's only part of it, but these are the things, these are the things that are laying around that we don't know what to do with, except we know we can't throw them out or we shouldn't. That's funny about the oil. We also know we can't throw oil away. We might be taking a firebird out, not a Mustang, but uh no offense to you Ford guys out there and Vince and everybody else. Got it. So these are a lot of things that we can easily accumulate, and we just don't get to these events. So this is a terrific opportunity to do that.

Who Can Use The Program

Richard Piet 4:14

So, what's the main criteria? You gotta live in Calhoun County, right?

Sarah Lundy 4:18

Yes, yeah, but needs to be residential, so it needs to come from a home, and then you need to live in Calhoun County.

Richard Piet 4:24

Okay, how do you verify that you ask folks to show their ID or something?

Sarah Lundy 4:29

We just really ask people to be honest. Um, our programming is funded by a host agreement with the CNC landfill, and that's a landfill that's in Canvas Township in Calhoun County. And so we're supposed to use that money that comes to us from the landfill on programming to make things better for the residents in Calhoun County. We get the money and quarterly payments from the landfill, and then we book vendors and work with different experts across the state to take care of these things. You know, we try to get everything as possible like recycled. Some things can't and they have to be disposed of, you know, safely. But we work with experts to make sure that everything is done the way that it should be to make it the most environmentally friendly for all of us.

Richard Piet 5:13

You mentioned sharps, meaning needle type drug injection devices and things, right? Yeah, those are other things we can't just toss out. And so uh we've been hanging on to those things and and we can bring them to you.

Sarah Lundy 5:28

Especially with everybody that's on like the medications like Ozimpic, like there's just way more out there now than what you know we're used to seeing in the past. So all of those little injector needles, along with the syringes with needles, those all are covered with our program.

Richard Piet 5:45

Okay. Here's another question. A lot of folks use continuous glucose monitors, you know, those little buttons you put on, and they come in these big plastic twist apart things and it snaps on. Can we bring you those?

Sarah Lundy 5:59

I don't know. Those are the kind of questions that I always get. So if people have questions about something that's not on the list, I like to have them call me and then I email or call our vendors and ask, and then I can give them detailed directions about if we can take them and if there's special rules or if they should take them somewhere else. Yeah, because I get questions all the time, even about I've had people trying to get rid of chemotherapy medications.

Richard Piet 6:23

Oh my.

Sarah Lundy 6:24

Yeah, or home dialysis equipment. I get all sorts of questions. So don't feel awkward about asking a question. I can I can ask the expert and get an answer to you.

Richard Piet 6:34

Okay. And do we just call you up and ask you? Or do we have to email you?

Sarah Lundy 6:38

Yeah, you can call or email. That's fine.

Richard Piet 6:40

What's your number? Let's tell them.

Sarah Lundy 6:41

So it is 269-969-6395.

Richard Piet 6:46

969-6395 to ask about items that you may want to get rid of, and you're not sure if you can bring them, and they will answer the question. Boy, I'm looking

Weird Stuff Labels And Safety

Richard Piet 7:00

at this list too. There's some things on here that might really make people's eyes widen, like mercury. I would presume most of the time we're talking about old thermometers and things that have mercury in them, but they could be other things too, right? And we know we can't throw those out.

Sarah Lundy 7:16

Yeah, we usually at least once a year we get a jar of mercury. Really? Yep, yep. Sometimes it comes in at like five pounds all at once, but thermostats, old furnace thermostats, have mercury in them too. Yep.

Richard Piet 7:31

Yes. Okay, so there you go. Mercury, flammable solids and liquids. What does that really mean?

Sarah Lundy 7:40

So, what what you need to do to like try to figure out what you have or if it needs to come, the best thing is to look at the label. So hopefully the product still have a label on it, and they're going to have words on there like flammable or warning, you know, poisonous, things like that. And so you kind of start looking at those labels and seeing what it says. There are things that can easily combust. There's things that combust when close to some other products. So those are good ones to definitely get in to us to make sure that you don't have those in your home longer than you need them to be there.

Richard Piet 8:17

Yeah. Lighters. Boy, I bet uh folks who use those have a lot of old ones laying around, right? Like the old bic kind of uh lighters, they run out of uh fuel, and then what do you do? Okay, you can bring those lead. Yeah, boy, how do you uh when lead comes in, how does it usually come in?

Sarah Lundy 8:40

Well, you know, it's it's interesting. People bring things in in all sorts types of containers to our event. So sometimes you get them in a glass, you get things in glass jars, you get things in old sprayers, you get things in bottles, you get things that are not labeled, you never know. It's it's a mixed bag about how everything comes in.

Richard Piet 9:03

Yeah, and if it's not labeled, it's up to the experts to sort it out.

Sarah Lundy 9:07

That's why the we have the vendor there, and that's why we don't do it ourselves. But the vendors can very easily identify it, and they have test stuff available. So if they do need to check something to make sure that they don't put it in the wrong, the wrong collection, then they do that.

Richard Piet 9:22

You can also bring your old self-defense spray and get rid of it. Wow. Now, I presume that I don't know that they must have a shelf life or something, and then you don't know what to do with them afterwards. You can take those two.

Sarah Lundy 9:37

Yeah, and like even like we've over the last few years, a lot of people that really stocked up in hand sanitizer during the pandemic. Yes, a lot of the hand sanitizer has a shelf date on it, and so as that's kind of expired and aged out, we've been getting a lot of that coming into the collections too.

Richard Piet 9:55

So that's not stuff you should dump down the drain or pour in the trash.

Sarah Lundy 10:00

Yes, yeah, especially if you have a septic system because that's a really high concentrate alcohol. So pouring chemicals into septic systems that really messes up the good bacteria that breaks things down. So extra caution for the residents that live in the country and have septic

What You Cannot Drop Off

Sarah Lundy 10:16

systems.

Richard Piet 10:16

Yeah, good point. Now, let's be sure we talk about what you cannot bring to uh the uh big household hazardous waste recycling event. Again, it's Monday, May 18, and again, we'll tell you where in a second. What can we not bring?

Sarah Lundy 10:32

So we don't take latex paint. That's kind of the big one that everybody's always trying to bring to us. And so it's really important to make sure that you look at it and your paint and kind of weed through what you have. We on our website we do have some information, um, some guidance documents about how to look at your paint and try to figure out if you have oil-based paint or latex paint. Latex paint isn't hazardous, you just need to dry it up with kitty litter or sand, put it out in the sun, cook it, get it dry, you know, and then then it can go into the trash. We also can't take things like ammunition. You know, I hear horror stories from other collections where people show up with grenades. You never know. You know, keeps us on our on our toes. But um, we can't take any explosives like that. It's just not not something that they can take.

Richard Piet 11:24

So you say that very calmly. Uh, but it's true. No explosives, no ammunition and no weapons.

Sarah Lundy 11:32

No weapons, yeah.

Richard Piet 11:33

Okay.

Sarah Lundy 11:33

Yeah, if it's best to contact law enforcement if you have ammunition or weapons that you're trying to get rid of, um, and it's not something that you can take to like a gun range, gun store kind of place, contact the sheriff's department and different law enforcement agencies, and they'll help guide you in what you should do with those items.

Richard Piet 11:52

Okay. Now, this might make sense when we say you cannot bring radioactive material up, but that includes smoke detectors.

Sarah Lundy 12:01

Yes, yes. And so if you have a smoke detector, you really should try to contact the manufacturer. So look up the manufacturer online and see what their procedure is. A lot of them will let you mail them back, and they have their own disposal programs for those items. But the state of Michigan really did not want me taking smoke detectors at our household hazardous waste collections.

Richard Piet 12:25

Okay, and that's another thing. Uh, when it exceeds its lifespan, you say, What do I do with this now? Uh so you have that. Here's some other things that may or may not make sense. So no trash. Uh that's good. Tires, no tires.

Sarah Lundy 12:46

Yes, we'll have tire collections again, probably in September or October.

Richard Piet 12:51

A separate event, but yeah, just for that. Okay. No yard waste, no construction or demolition waste, no appliances, no industrial or business generated waste. Okay. That's also on the no-no list.

Sarah Lundy 13:07

On the no-no list for the household hazardous waste. But don't forget that we are we will have a bin there for scrap metal.

Richard Piet 13:15

Okay.

Sarah Lundy 13:16

So we can put appliances that don't have Freon in

Electronics Recycling And Data Protection

Sarah Lundy 13:20

the scrap metal bin.

Richard Piet 13:22

Okay. Good. What about electronics? This is another thing that happens. You know, we probably got a VCR laying around somewhere, not being used, doesn't work. No, we shouldn't throw it away. Can you take it?

Sarah Lundy 13:34

Yeah. So we have an electronics vendor that will also be at the event. So you can bring your TVs and your computers and your VCRs, old telephones, um, vacuum cleaners, fans, even lights. We see it all. Um, but they'll they'll take it. I know there's always people that are concerned with hard drives. And so our vendor will either, if it's an older item, they will shred the hard drive. Um, if it's a newer item, then they do a security wipe of all the data on the hard drive. But that is how they, you know, protect your identity and don't contribute to identity fraud.

Richard Piet 14:13

Yeah. And that, of course, is one of the reasons why some of us probably have old computers lying around the house because we're afraid to let them go with all that data. I even know a friend who was building a garage and dropped her hard drives down in the in the space where they poured the foundation on. So I don't know if that was a good idea or not, but she was quite confident nobody was gonna get at any of the things. Yeah.

Sarah Lundy 14:43

I I've seen some pretty creative things when people have brought them in before.

Richard Piet 14:48

So that you have.

Sarah Lundy 14:49

But it, you know, they will take care of the material that we use vendors that are registered with the state of Michigan. So we're not bringing in just you know anybody to do this.

Richard Piet 14:59

All right. So that's uh the uh the point here is that there is quite a bit on the household hazardous waste list of things that you can bring to this event.

Location Hours And Traffic Flow

Richard Piet 15:10

Tell them again, Sarah, where and when.

Sarah Lundy 15:13

All right, so it is Monday, May 18th at Catcham Field in Albion. And the address there is 1203 East North Street. It is right over by the armory and the fiberglass factory. If you need some landmarks to help you find the location, but we're taking the household hazardous waste and scrap metal and then electronics. So we hope to see you there.

Richard Piet 15:40

And this is going to be from noon to 5:30. So you've got quite a length of time. You also on the website have a traffic flow map because obviously we try to control the traffic so it isn't a bunch of chaos trying to get to you. So folks might want to have a look at that, right?

Sarah Lundy 15:59

Yes, and it also helps them know like how they should load their vehicle, you know, what things should be at the back and what should be, you know, closer to the the driver and makes it a little bit easier to unload to unload the material.

Richard Piet 16:11

But well, that makes sense because you're gonna drive in and then there's gonna be an order to the unloading. So uh that's a terrific point. We will put the link to this information in the show notes for this episode at Battle Creek Podcast.com so you can click through again. If you have questions about what you can or can't bring to this event on Monday, the 18th in Albion, the number is 269-969-6395. 969-6395. You can talk with Sarah and her team at uh the recycling department, if you will, at Calhoun County, and they will answer your questions. But Monday, May 18th is the next opportunity to get rid of hazardous household waste. You say there'll be an one more of those this year, Sarah.

Sarah Lundy 17:04

Yeah,

Next Dates And Final Reminder

Sarah Lundy 17:05

so we'll do household hazardous waste at the fairgrounds in September.

Richard Piet 17:09

Okay.

Sarah Lundy 17:10

So that but this is your last until September, this is your last opportunity to get rid of actually, even it's our second electronic and scrap metal appliance collection, too. So this is your big, you know, wrap up the spring cleaning, get rid of the things that you have sitting around, get the old grill out, you know, get if you have an oven, a dishwasher, those can go. Old fencing. If you got new furniture for your deck and you've got some old metal furniture, that can come too. So it's a good time to just clean it, get rid of it all at once. We don't want to make you come to three different events to get rid of all your stuff, so you might as well bring it all together, one trip, one line.

Richard Piet 17:53

All right, and that's May 18th. If you don't come to May 18th, you'll be looking at that old BCR till September.

Sarah Lundy 18:00

Yeah, well, this is the BCR will have to wait until probably next April.

Richard Piet 18:04

Oh boy, yeah.

Sarah Lundy 18:05

Yeah, September is just household hazardous waste. So this is the stop, you know, get rid of everything altogether.

Richard Piet 18:13

Yeah, so take advantage on Monday, May 18th, catch them field 12 to 5 30 for this event. Sarah Lundy, Calhoun County. Thank you for this reminder.

Sarah Lundy 18:25

Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for the opportunity.