Business & Tech
RethinkWaste Reaches Waste Collection Milestone
The agency collected an enormous amount of household hazardous waste from residents in participating communities, including Menlo Park.
Written by Laura Dudnick
More than 1 million pounds of household hazardous waste has been collected by RethinkWaste since the program began three years ago, a milestone announced by the agency on Friday.
From May 2010 through June 2013, about 405,519 pounds of HHW material, 418,552 pounds of Universal Waste and 194,624 pounds of electronic scrap have been collected from residents in participating communities through RethinkWaste's Door-to-Door HHW Collection Program.
“This is an exciting milestone demonstrating how much of this material is stored out there in residents garages and other storage places,” said Kevin McCarthy, Executive Director of RethinkWaste.
“The challenge is that lots more legacy material is out there and more generated every year with new consumer purchases. We need to stem this flow and certainly get more product stewardship laws on the books to pay for collection programs.”
Through the program, residents follow a simple process to safely and properly manage items including paint, solvents, insecticides, cleaning products, fluorescent lamps, laptops, computers monitors, TVs and sharps.
The Door-to-Door HHW Collection program is for all residents, including single-family homes, condominiums, townhouses and apartments, in the following participating RethinkWaste Member Agencies: Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, San Carlos, San Mateo, San Mateo County and the West Bay Sanitary District.
For more details on the program, visit www.RethinkWaste.org.
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