Many common products that we use in our daily lives contain potentially hazardous ingredients and require special care when disposed of. It is illegal to dispose of hazardous waste in the garbage, down storm drains, or onto the ground. Chemicals in hazardous waste can be released into the environment and contaminate our air, water, and possibly the food we eat. And by throwing hazardous waste in the garbage, you can cause additional hazards to your garbage handler.
Regulations to protect public health and the environment have been changing. This is because we now know that some common items that have traditionally been thrown in your household's or small business' trash cannot be safely disposed in landfills. These common items are referred to as hazardous waste, and some of them as "universal waste" (u-waste). As of February 9, 2006, all "u-waste" items are banned from the trash. For additional information on u-waste, please check the Department of Toxics Substances Control (DTSC) Web site.
The bottom line is that we must keep hazardous materials out of the trash by bringing them somewhere to be recycled or safely disposed such as a household hazardous waste collection facility. Check with the City of Turlock’s Municipal Services Department or Stanislaus County’s Department of Environmental Resources to find out where to take these items in your area.
What Is Banned?
Lights, Batteries, and Electronics
Fluorescent lamps and tubes. Includes fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent lamps, metal halide lamps, and sodium vapor lamps.
Batteries. Includes all batteries, AAA, AA, C, D, button cell, 9-volt, and all others, both rechargeable and single use. Also lead-acid batteries such as car batteries.
Computer and television monitors. Includes cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal diode (LCD), and plasma TV’s and monitors. Learn about the State program to offset the cost of proper television and monitor recycling...
Electronic devices. Includes computers, printers, VCRs, cell phones, telephones, radios, and microwave ovens. Refer to "How do I know if a particular electronic device can't be thrown in the trash?" for more information.
Mercury-Containing Items
Electrical switches and relays. These typically contain about 3.5 grams of mercury each. Mercury switches can be found in some chest freezers, pre-1972 washing machines, sump pumps, electric space heaters, clothes irons, silent light switches, automobile hood and trunk lights, and ABS brakes.
Thermostats that contain mercury. There is a mercury inside the sealed glass "tilt switch" of the old style thermostats (not the newer electronic kind).
Pilot light sensors. Mercury-containing switches are found in some gas appliances such as stoves, ovens, clothes dryers, water heaters, furnaces, and space heaters.
Mercury gauges. Some gauges, such as barometers, manometers, blood pressure, and vacuum gauges contain mercury.
Mercury thermometers. Mercury thermometers typically contain about a half gram of mercury. Many health clinics, pharmacies and doctor's offices have thermometer exchange programs that will give you a new mercury-free fever thermometer in exchange for your old one.
Mercury-added novelties. Examples include greeting cards that play music when opened; athletic shoes (made before 1997) with flashing lights in soles; and mercury maze games.
Household and Landscape Chemicals
Flammables and poisons. Includes solvent-based (oil) paints and reactive and explosive materials.
Acids, oxidizers, and bases. Includes some pool chemicals and cleaners.
Pesticides and herbicides. Many pesticides and herbicides cannot be disposed in the trash. Consult the product label or check with the City of Turlock’s Municipal Services Dept. or Stanislaus County Department of Environmental Resources.
Paints and Solvents
Latex paint.
Oil-based paint (also listed under flammables).
Nonempty aerosol paint or solvent cans (all nonempty aerosol cans are banned from the trash).
Solvents. Includes materials such as paint thinners, finger nail polish remover, etc.
Building Materials
Asbestos. Includes some older kinds of cement, roofing, flooring and siding. More information on asbestos in your home is available from the U.S. EPA.
Treated Wood. Includes wood that is treated with chromium copper arsenate (CCA).
Automobile-Related
Antifreeze.
Batteries.
Motor oil and filters.
Tires. (Note that tires are not considered hazardous, but automotive tires are banned from the trash for other reasons)
Other
Compressed gas cylinders. Includes propane tanks used for BBQ or plumbing.
Needles and sharps generated in home health care. Includes hypodermic needles, hypodermic needles with syringes, blades, needles with attached tubing, syringes contaminated with biohazardous waste, acupuncture needles, root canal files, broken glass items such as Pasteur pipettes, and blood vials.
PCB-containing materials. Includes paint and ballasts that contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB).
Photo waste (silver bearing).
Nonempty aerosol cans that contain hazardous materials. Many products in aerosol cans are toxic. And many aerosol cans contain flammables, like butane, as propellants for products like paint. If your aerosol can is labeled with words like TOXIC or FLAMMABLE don't put it in the trash unless it is completely empty.
How do I know if a particular electronic device can't be thrown in the trash?
The Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has tested many electronic devices including: tube-type and flat panel televisions and computer monitors, laptop computers, computers central processing units (CPU), printers, radios, microwave ovens, video cassette recorders (VCR), cell phones, cordless phones, and telephone answering machines. The devices that DTSC tested contained concentrations of metals (lead and copper) high enough to make them hazardous wastes when they are discarded. Unless you are sure they are not hazardous, you should presume these types of devices need to be recycled or disposed of as hazardous waste and that they may not be thrown in the trash.
Our Guide to Safe Hazardous Waste Disposal
Believe it or not...your home is probably full of hazardous waste. Many products we use regularly everyday (cleaners, glues, soaps, pesticides, pharmaceuticals) are toxic or hazardous. If these products are used improperly, carelessly, or in a manner not intended, they can injure you both directly and indirectly. By putting these into your trash can, you endanger refuse collectors, the environment and our drinking water. You are ultimately liable for these wastes and any harm they cause.
Hazardous Waste Collection Centers
The permanent collection facility is located at County Center IV, 1716 Morgan Road, Modesto. Household Hazardous Waste are collected free of charge to the residents of Stanislaus County.
The collection facility is open Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., excluding major holidays. For up-to-date information on dates the facility is open, please call the Household Hazardous Waste Information Hotline at 209-525-4123. In addition, the mobile collection facility may be coming to a site near you! You can view the mobile collection facility schedule in English and Spanish.
Do's and Don't of Hazardous Waste
PLEASE DON'T… Put Household Hazardous Waste:
In the Trash
Down the Drain
In the Toilet
On the Ground
In the Street
PLEASE DO… :
Read product labels
Buy only the amount you need
Use products until gone
Donate unwanted products
Recycle motor oil and auto batteries
Before transporting Hazardous Waste to the Collection Center…
BE SURE:
The waste is in its original container
The contents of the containers are the same as stated on the label
The containers are sound and not leaking
The amount of waste per visit does not exceed 5 gallons or 50 lbs (20 Gallons of waste motor oil)
Hazardous Waste From Small Quantity Generators
Businesses that meet the 27 gallon, or 220 pound limit of hazardous waste generated per month are considered Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators and qualify for participation in this program.
Participation is for small businesses from within Stanislaus County only!!
Types of businesses that generate small amounts of hazardous waste:
painters
construction companies
printers
photo processing
Types of businesses that generate small amounts of hazardous waste
