My guest today is Victoria Hodge, President of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association (NAHMMA), a professional organization dedicated to pollution prevention and reducing the hazardous constituents entering municipal waste streams from households, small businesses and other entities that are not included in other toxics disposal regulations. She is also the Municipal Sales Manager for the Central Region for Otto Environmental Systems, where she works with the field sales team to build municipal business in both products and services. Among other activities in the field of solid waste and recycling Victoria set up a pharmeceutical collection site that received regional, state, and national awards as a result of its success. We’ll be talking aabout which items in your home are considered hazardous waste and how to legally dispose of them. www.nahmma.org
TOXIC FREE TALK RADIO
Household Hazardous Waste—What to Do with the Toxics You Want to Trash
Host: Debra Lynn Dadd
Guest: Victoria Hodge
Date of Broadcast: August 21, 2013
DEBRA: Hi, I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. And this is Toxic Free Talk Radio where we talk about how to thrive in a toxic world. There are toxic chemicals all around us, in consumer products that we use, in the environment. They’re just all over the place—even in our bodies. But there are things that we can do to make less toxic choices, to remove toxic chemicals from our homes, from our bodies, from our workplaces.
And today, what we’re going to talk about is what to do with all those toxic chemicals that you might be removing from your home. When you decide to go toxic-free at home, or toxic-free in your workplace, what do you do with all those toxic chemicals? It’s actually illegal to put them in your trash.
And today, we’re going to be talking with Victoria L. Hodge who is the president of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association. Hi, Victoria.
VICTORIA HODGE: Hi, Debra. How are you today?
DEBRA: I’m good. How are you?
VICTORIA HODGE: I’m doing well.
DEBRA: I forgot to say that today is August 20, 2013. And I’m here in Clearwater, Florida. And where are you, Victoria?
VICTORIA HODGE: I’m in the beautiful Denton, Texas, just north of the Dallas Forth Worth Metroplex.
DEBRA: I’ve been to Texas. It’s a beautiful place.
VICTORIA HODGE: Yes, it can be, absolutely.
DEBRA: Victoria, you have a long list of credentials in working in solid waste. What made you interested in working in this area?
VICTORIA HODGE: Well, I started off working for the City of Denton in quite a few years ago. I was working with the Solid Waste Department. And they decided they wanted to start a Household Hazardous Waste Program, and I thought that would be a great opportunity for me to make a difference in my community and in the environment. So, I decided to take on the challenge and do it.
DEBRA: Can you tell us something about the history of Household Hazardous Waste? I know that, when I was born, there was no such thing. And actually, 30 years ago, when I started writing about toxic chemicals in consumer products, there was no Household Hazardous Waste Program.
The first one I ever heard of—and I don’t remember the date—it was a collection day that you couldn’t go take it in at any time, and we had to save up our pesticides and our paint cans and everything. And then once a month, there’s something. There’s a collection day, and we’d have to go take things to the collection day.
Tell us about the whole idea of Household Hazardous Waste, why it’s important, and how we came to have Household Hazardous Waste Collection.
VICTORIA HODGE: It’s funny that you say that you remember being able to go once a month to drop off items because I know a community still today that don’t have drop-off collections at all. And the ones that do sometimes only have them once a year.
And we’re lucky that some communities are able to incorporate an ongoing facility or ongoing collection. Each community is different when it comes to that.
DEBRA: Where I live right now in Florida, I can just take those in at any time. It’s five days a week, they’re open. Anyone can take in their household hazardous waste collection. I actually thought it was that way all across the country.
VICTORIA HODGE: Unfortunately, it’s not. And you’re very lucky because the State of Florida is one of the leading states that is pushing everyone onwards of getting everyone else involved and onboard. And you mentioned earlier that I’m the president of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association, which we lovingly call it NAHMMA, so I’ll call it NAHMMA from here on out.
The State of Florida, their chapter is the strongest chapter in our organization.
DEBRA: Yay, Florida.
VICTORIA HODGE: Yes, exactly.
DEBRA: So what’s the difference between when somebody throws a household hazardous waste in the garbage can, just the regular trash, versus taking it to Household Hazardous Waste Collection? And I was assuming because it’s illegal where I’ve lived to put household hazardous waste in the trash, that it was that way everywhere. Is that the case?
VICTORIA HODGE: It is not the case. Since it is a consumer amount—let’s say, you buy a bottle of cleaner as an individual, it may have the same chemicals, and it does. It has the same chemicals that a corporation when they buy or make big, huge, large amounts of it. They’re just regulated, where they have to dispose of it in a certain way.
We, as consumers, when we buy that cleaner in our little bottle from a grocery store or a home improvement store, there’s no regulation on how to dispose of it, so we are able to throw it legally into the landfill, into our trash, which eventually would probably go to a landfill in those communities.
Obviously, we know that that’s not the best solution. And fortunately, many communities do have Household Hazardous Waste Collections, or ongoing facilities where people can drop it off.
DEBRA: What if somebody lives in a community where they don’t have that?
VICTORIA HODGE: One of the things that I’d like to recommend is if you have a chemical, if you have a product that you have used and either you don’t like it, or you’ve used all that you need of that, see if any of your neighbors or friends need it before you try to dispose of it. That way, you’re not throwing it out into the environment, or into the landfill. It might be someone else’s favorite product. Just because you didn’t like it or needed it anymore, it might be something that they would normally go to the store and buy.
And so that way, it’s being completely used. And the person that you’re giving it to has, fortunately, saved some money.
DEBRA: Well, what is a household hazardous waste site look like? How is it different from a landfill? When I take things to the collection, where does it go?
VICTORIA HODGE: The household hazardous waste collection site, it’s usually the chemicals, the items, are separated by their class of chemical, and it’s either recycled or disposed of properly, either into a hazardous waste landfill that’s a landfill that is certified for hazardous waste, or it is incinerated.
So it can be either recycled, obviously, reused is the best thing, recycled, and then unfortunately, either incinerated for destruction, or the worst that would happen, I would think, would be having to landfill it into a hazardous waste landfill.
DEBRA: And what does a hazardous waste landfill look like? Is it lined in some particular way?
VICTORIA HODGE: Correct. There is a specific type of landfill. We have many different types of landfill, and I’m not the expert in that. That’s a whole other topic for someone. But there are different types of landfills. There’s the landfill that—the municipal landfills which is where our everyday trash goes into, and then there are hazardous material landfills, and those are specially regulated, specially lined, very impermeable surfaces, so that that material that is in there will not go into, and has no chance of going into the ground water.
DEBRA: That’s great. So basically, what we’re trying to do is keep the toxic chemicals out of the ground water. That’s the whole point.
VICTORIA HODGE: That’s the whole point.
DEBRA: So I’ve seen instructions sometimes where it says, don’t put it in the trash, pour it down the sink. Is that a good idea?
VICTORIA HODGE: Well, it depends on the chemical itself, and the type of product that it is. Some items can go into the drain.
It’s better to pour it down your sink because once it gets to the waste water treatment plant, it could be treated. You would rather it go into that versus going into the storm drain.
We’d like to keep it out of all of it.
DEBRA: Well, we’re coming up on a break now. We’re talking with Victoria L. Hodge, and she’s the president of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association. And when we come back, we’ll talk more about household hazardous waste, so that you can know what to do with the toxic chemicals that you want to trash.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Victoria L. Hodge, president of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association. And we’re talking about household hazardous waste.
And I was actually surprised to learn at the beginning of the show that not every community has a household hazardous waste collection like I do here in Florida. And so when we’re talking about, as you all know, who have been listening to this show for days and days and weeks and months, and have read my books, that my whole message is about us not being exposed to toxic chemicals in our homes. And well, the Household Hazardous Waste Programs exist to keep the toxic chemicals out of the ground water, and to preserve our environment.
We need to, each of us, be interested in these programs because when we decide to remove toxic chemicals from our homes because we don’t want to use them anymore, we need to make sure that we do that in a responsible way that doesn’t hurt other parts of the environment and other species.
So we’re going to be talking about what should be taken to household hazardous waste. But before we do that I want to make sure that all of you listening, if you don’t already know where your local household hazardous waste is, I want to just give you some tips on how to find one.
Now, you may or may not have one, and you may need to go to another nearby community in order to find yours. But the first thing—I wrote about household hazardous waste in my book, Toxic-Free, and it starts on page 33. And I have some instructions that I’m about to tell you on page 35. And then on page 36 and 37, it has an extensive list of things that are considered to be household hazardous waste, which we’re going to discuss.
So the first thing you need to do is find your local household hazardous waste collection facility. And I found mine by typing in the name of my county and household hazardous waste into a search engine online. And I don’t have any household hazardous waste to dispose of, so I don’t actually use it. But I just wanted to see if my community had a household hazardous waste program, and how easy it was to find.
And so if you don’t get a result, a search engine result for typing in the name of your county and household hazardous waste, I would call whoever it is that picks up your garbage, and ask them, tell them that you’re interested in disposing of your household hazardous wastes properly and where is the closest household hazardous waste collection.
And if you don’t have one in your community, you might consider making a little noise about getting one.
Victoria, if somebody doesn’t have a household hazardous waste program in their community, what are some tips about what they could do to get one?
VICTORIA HODGE: I think you’re on the right track of making some noise with your city county leaders, and letting them know that this is something that you’re wanting because I would guarantee that almost all the programs that have started have come about because their citizens or residents saw a need, and they inquired about it.
Just asking about it, and the more that the city leaders hear, the county leaders hear, that their residents and constituents want something like this, the more likely you are to get what you want.
DEBRA: I agree with that. Often, it’s a grassroots thing. All these good things happen because grassroots, people say, “Let’s have this important thing.”
It doesn’t usually come from the government. I’m not wanting to sound like I’m putting down the government. But this is a government that is by the people and for the people here in America, and we have a right to speak up and say what it is we want.
I’m recommending household hazardous waste because I want you to take all your toxic chemicals out of your home, and dispose of them safely.
But it’s even more important to have household hazardous waste for people who are still using household chemicals that are toxic because they’re going to continue to use them, and continue to put them into the environment where it hurts everybody.
Another thing else I found out about toxic household hazardous waste is that every community has a different list of what they accept and what they don’t accept. And so you really need to find your local facility, and then find out what they’ll accept.
Has that been your experience, Victoria?
VICTORIA HODGE: Absolutely. Every program is going to be different. The list of things that one community will accept and you might live in one community for a long time, and you’re used to taking certain things to it, and then you move to a new community, and you find out that they’re not accepting those same things.
So yes, each program is different, so you definitely need to do a little bit of research, and do your homework before you either drive to that facility, or call to have them pick up your items.
DEBRA: And another thing that I want to mention about household hazardous waste is that there really are two kinds of chemicals that we’re discussing on this show. One is called acute, which is something that if you were to drink the chemical, or even spill it on your skin or something, something like most cleaning products or pesticides, products with warning labels on them, if they’re really toxic, that they will damage you just when you drink them. And you want to keep them out of reach of children.
Those are the kinds of things that are usually household hazardous wastes.
Then there’s another kind of chemical called cumulative. Cumulative, and what those do is you have to be exposed to them day in and day out over a period of time. And they build up in your body.
Those, most people don’t even recognize and don’t go to the household hazardous waste center.
So mostly, a good rule of thumb is to think that the poisons that you would call the poison center, poison control center for, those are also considered household hazardous waste.
It’s time for us to take another break, and then when we come back, we’ll talk about what are some things at your house that are household hazardous wastes.
I’m here with my guest, Victoria L. Hodge. She’s the president of the North Americans Hazardous Materials Management Association, and I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio, and we’re talking about household hazardous wastes.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and today, we’re talking about household hazardous waste with Victoria L. Hodge, president of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association.
Victoria, let’s talk about what is hazardous waste around the house. I have a list here, and I’m sure you have your own list of what is included.
So why don’t you start? I think that I would start with the ones that are the most toxic.
VICTORIA HODGE: Well, you obviously have household cleaners, which sometimes people don’t think of them as being toxic because they think, “Oh, I’m using this is in my house. I can buy it off of the shelf at a store.”
So I would say household cleaners definitely are among the most toxic.
DEBRA: I would agree with you. They’re governed by the Hazardous Substances Act, and they have warning labels on them.
A number of years ago, when I wrote one of my books way back in the 90’s or 80’s, I decided that I was going to list all the household products in their order of how toxic they were.
And cleaning products turned out to be the first chapter. And if people want to just eliminate cleaning products all together, there are a lot of cleaning products that you can make yourself. Just gather everything up, and take it to the household hazardous waste, and just don’t use them anymore.
Or if, as Victoria said earlier, you know somebody who wants to use them, then you can give them to them. But I would say—I ask myself, this is an ethical question for me, do I want to give other people things that I know are toxic? And I decided just the other day that I was not going to sell my copper faucets for a kitchen sink, which I had taken out and replaced with new faucets because the old one had lead in it.
And I thought, this is a beautiful antique faucet, and I’m not going to sell it for its value as a faucet. I’m taking it down to the recycling place, and recycling it, and just having it taken out of the consumer stream because I don’t want people to be using a faucet with lead in it.
And I think that that’s probably the same thing with household hazardous waste. I think that I wouldn’t give it to somebody, but I feel too that if people want to use it, they’re going to use it whether I give it to them, or they go buy it.
VICTORIA HODGE: It’s a double-edged sword.
DEBRA: It’s dilemma. What is the right thing to do?
So you can go to any natural food store, and buy less toxic products. You can make your own. I just use things like Bon Ami, lemon juice, vinegar and baking soda to clean with, and none of those things have to go to the household hazardous waste.
What else besides cleaning products?
VICTORIA HODGE: Well, you also have lawn and garden, and you have the fertilizers, and herbicides, and pesticides, and poisons.
DEBRA: Don’t you think it’s funny that people are spraying herbicides and fungicides all over their gardens, and yet when they need to dispose with, it’s considered to be household hazardous waste?
VICTORIA HODGE: Yes. The stuff that you put on your lawn is the most direct avenue of affecting our ground water.
DEBRA: So people shouldn’t be using those at all?
VICTORIA HODGE: In my opinion, no.
DEBRA: In my opinion also. But if you have any left in a can, it should go to the household hazardous waste.
VICTORIA HODGE: Yes, absolutely.
DEBRA: Okay, what else?
VICTORIA HODGE: Paint and paint-related supplies, whenever you’re painting a wall, or even art supplies. Those can be hazardous and toxic at times, depending on what you happen to purchase.
DEBRA: Well, let me say something about that because there are different kinds of paint. Obviously, oil-based paint is the most toxic, and then the next toxic after that is latex paint.
And I just said, well, you’re spraying fungicides all over your garden, and that’s household hazardous waste. And you’re putting paint all over your walls, and that’s household hazardous waste.
But I wanted to say the difference. And to me, the difference is that if you have paint in a can, it has toxic solvents in it. And once you put it on your wall, those solves evaporate, and what’s left on the wall is actually not a toxic material. It’s a coating, but there are no solvents left.
And it’s the solvent part, the wet paint in the can, that is the household hazardous waste, not the paint on the wall.
VICTORIA HODGE: Correct.
DEBRA: And so if you’ve got leftover paint in a can, I know a lot of people, including myself, we keep those paint cans, so that we can do a touch-up on the wall, but if you have enough left that you feel—it’s still there and you painted the wall another color, and you don’t need to save it, and you want to dispose it, then it needs to not go into the garbage can. You need to take it to the household hazardous waste.
VICTORIA HODGE: Correct. And paint is one thing, especially latex paint. If you happen to not have a program that you can take it to for proper disposal, then there are several things that you can do. You can take an old board, and paint that several times, and you just leave it outside and keep letting it dry, and just keep painting it over and over. That way, you can use up the paint because like you said, once the paint dries, it’s no longer toxic.
Or if you have too much to do that, or if you don’t have time to do that, you can pour kitty litter in it, and just keep mixing that until it dries. And then once it’s dried in the can, at that point, you are able to put it into your trash.
DEBRA: I didn’t know about that one. When I was in California, where I used to live, and where I went to my first household hazardous waste collection, they used to have a paint recycling collection place. They probably still do. I don’t think we have one here in Florida where I live.
But you could actually go to the household hazardous waste place, and buy the can, like half a can of something, or they would also mix the colors together, and sometimes get some strange colors, but there are many times when the color doesn’t matter, you just need to protect the piece of wood, or that you’re just painting a room, that you can reuse somebody’s paint, or recycle it into another use.
So I think that part of disposing of household hazardous waste is to recycle it into something. And I know that in the larger scheme of things in the world that recycling toxic chemicals is one of the things, as you mentioned earlier, if they can be recycled instead of disposed of.
We need to take another break. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. And my guest today is Victoria L. Hodge. We’re talking about household hazardous waste. And we’ll be right back.
DEBRA: You’re listening to Toxic Free Talk Radio. I’m Debra Lynn Dadd, and my guest today is Victoria L. Hodge from the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association. And we’re talking about keeping hazardous waste out of the environment and out of our homes.
Victoria, I just wanted to mention that several years ago, I lived in San Francisco for three months. And while I was there one of the things that was going on was that they were doing a big campaign about mercury-collecting from the fluorescent lamps, and collecting thermometers, and anything that had mercury in it because the fish in San Francisco Bay, tuna and swordfish, they had extremely high mercury levels in them. And so people were eating the fresh fish and crab and all those things. They were coming out of San Francisco Bay, and getting extremely high mercury levels up to three times the threshold for Federal Food Regulation to pull the seafood from the shelves.
And consumers just had no idea that was going on.
And so here was a real-life situation where you could actually see in—I’m smiling right now because once I wrote a note to one of my book editors where I used a phrase in my local forest, and she didn’t know what I was talking about because she lived in New York City, and she didn’t have any reality that there was such a thing as a forest where you live.
That’s what popped into my mind when I was about to say that people in San Francisco, and I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area and lived there all my life until I moved to Florida 12 years ago, but there’s a bay, and there’s fish there, and people eat their fish, and San Francisco is famous for their seafood.
And yet, the citizens of the surrounding area were not disposing of their mercury-containing products in household hazardous waste, and it has contaminated San Francisco Bay. And that’s something that local people are now aware of that there are toxic levels of mercury in San Francisco Bay.
This is why this is important because we talked about at the beginning that the point of household hazardous waste is about to keep the toxic chemicals out of groundwater, that where it comes back to the consumer is exactly this example from San Francisco Bay. The consumer throws those mercury-containing compact fluorescent lights, and the tube lights into the trash that goes into the landfill, it goes into the bay, and then you go have sushi, and you’re eating three times the acceptable level of mercury.
VICTORIA HODGE: That’s very unfortunate.
DEBRA: It is. But I think that that’s happening probably all over, and we don’t even know it.
VICTORIA HODGE: It’s highly possible, yes, it is. And speaking of the fluorescent bulbs, I think that one of the unfortunate things is that people don’t realize that you do have to take special care when you dispose of those. They don’t just go into your trash cans.
DEBRA: I know. And I think that a lot of people don’t know that. I actually witnessed an otherwise intelligent woman actually break a compact fluorescent bulb, and pick up the pieces and put it in the trash. And I said, “Excuse me, it’s got toxic mercury in it. You shouldn’t be doing that.”
And she said, “Oh, I don’t care.”
VICTORIA HODGE: Oh, my gosh.
DEBRA: And that was her attitude. And unfortunately, I think that a lot of people just feel that way, that they just put everything in the trash and aren’t aware of where the toxic things are, and that they should be sorted out, and that they should be taken.
I actually tell people not to use compact fluorescent bulbs because of the mercury and that they can use LEDs that have much less toxic material in them because there should be just a collection point for compact fluorescent bulbs.
I think it’s not getting enough education out into the community.
VICTORIA HODGE: I actually agree with you on that. One of the fortunate things is, at least here in the Texas area, there’s a couple of home improvement stores that are now accepting the bulbs. So definitely check with your neighborhood, your local hardware store, home improvement store, and see if they have those programs because there are national programs, national chains that are doing that now.
DEBRA: I don’t use them, so I don’t have any place to dispose of them. But I do know that environmentalists are particularly promoting these because they save energy, and they do. But they also produce toxic chemicals and toxic wastes, and it is household hazardous waste, and as we see, it’s polluted San Francisco Bay.
So that’s not good for our environment.
So tell us some other things that are considered household hazardous waste.
VICTORIA HODGE: There are certain kinds of batteries, definitely the rechargeable batteries need to be returned and recycled. Those are not good, and it should not go into your trash. It should not go to the landfills. The rechargeable batteries do need to be taken to a location that recycles rechargeable batteries.
DEBRA: And what else?
VICTORIA HODGE: Let’s see. We talked about art projects, certain paints and stuff like that. And I think that a lot of, especially children’s art project items are usually non-toxic, so that’s good. But on the adult side, if you have a hobby, or a craft that you do, make sure you’re taking care of your, like you said, of your health, and make sure that you’re using the least toxic item that you can when it comes to that.
DEBRA: One of the big things in terms of hobbies is the adhesive that many people use to put models together. That’s very toxic to breathe, and also is household hazardous waste.
One of the things I want to mention on my list is that I think that most women don’t recognize that some of the things that they’re putting on their bodies every day are considered household hazardous waste like cuticle remover, and hair-removing products, and permanent wave solution, hair straightening solution, and especially nail polish and nail polish remover.
And I think that a lot of women just use those products as if they’re water. You’re just putting on nail polish and indoors where there’s no ventilation, and they are extremely toxic to use. And nail polish remove is the same thing, that if you’re going to use those, go outside and use them, and don’t throw them in the trash. Make sure that you use it all up, so it doesn’t go—or take it to household hazardous waste.
It’s just so interesting to me that so much of what is commonly used is actually considered household hazardous waste.
Also, you particularly did a program about pharmaceutical collection. Can you tell us about why it’s important, what to do with pharmaceuticals because they are considered household hazardous waste.
VICTORIA HODGE: Yes, absolutely. And that is a whole other program that we should get into another time too. You should dedicate more time to that.
Yes, pharmaceuticals are definitely something. We’ve heard for years and years and years to flush it down your toilet if you don’t need it or want it. And that is the worst thing that you can do because our septic as well as our waste water treatment plants are not geared and tooled to get rid of all of the pharmaceuticals that can be in there. So definitely look for pharmaceutical collection programs. There are more and more permanent ones that are popping up all over the country. The DEA has had several collection days, usually in October, and in April, and those are nationwide programs.
So definitely go to the DEA website and see when their next program is.
DEBRA: And what does DEA stand for?
VICTORIA HODGE: Department of—you would ask me that.
DEBRA: I know. You’re used to calling it DEA but nobody knows what it is.
VICTORIA HODGE: I know. My apology. I don’t know off the top of my head. I apologize.
DEBRA: It’s okay. I’m going to look it up while you’re talking. Go ahead.
VICTORIA HODGE: Anyway, that would be a really good thing for people to realize that they do need to dispose of that. It’s Drug Enforcement Administration. Sorry about that.
And so yes, pharmaceuticals do need to be properly disposed of as well. And luckily, fortunately, the DEA is catching onto that and they’re encouraging law enforcement to have collection programs so that they can collect all pharmaceuticals, including controlled substances.
DEBRA: That’s excellent. And we will have you on again to talk about that. Maybe we could have you on in October when it’s time for the collection programs.
So we just have not even a minute left. Are there any final words you’d like to say?
VICTORIA HODGE: I would like to thank you for having me on, and letting me talk about household hazardous waste. If people have more questions, or would like more information, they can go to our website at NAHMMA. It’s NAHMMA.org, and they can find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
DEBRA: And you can also go to ToxicFreeTalkRadio.com, and there’s a link right there. Just look for Victoria’s smiling face, and you can also—we will be posting this show, and you can listen to the archive show, or share it with your friends.
I’m Debra Lynn Dadd. This is Toxic Free Talk Radio.
VICTORIA HODGE: Thank you so much.
DEBRA: Thank you.
