With that in mind, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) will be holding its annual household hazardous waste collection event April 12 at Big Springs Shopping Center from 8 a.m. until noon.

At the event, residents can safely dispose of household hazardous wastes such as herbicides, pesticides, poisons, as well as paint and electronics.

But some items which in the past would have had to be saved for the cleanup may now be disposed of in the regular garbage. New guidelines this year state that small amounts of latex paint may be dried until solid and thrown away in the regular trash. Also, alkaline batteries no longer contain mercury and can be thrown in the trash as well.

Acceptable items for the collection event will be automotive and marine products like oil and fuel additives, grease and rust solvents, navel jelly, carburetor and fuel injector cleaners, starter fluids, antifreeze and coolant.

Products used for home maintenance and improvement will be accepted. Among the items to be collected will be oil-based paint, stains and varnishes, used strippers and thinners, adhesives/wallpaper remover and driveway sealant or roofing tar.

Electronics accepted will be televisions, printers, monitors and keyboards. Lawn and garden products like pesticides, fertilizer and wood preservatives will be collected as well as miscellaneous products such as pool chemicals, medicines and drugs, aerosols or compressed gas and fluorescent tubes.

Items that will not be accepted include medical and biological wastes like needles, or items from a doctor's office, clinic or vet's office, explosive items like fireworks or gunpowder or ammunition as well as automotive gas tanks, laboratory chemicals and cooking oil.

Bedford County will be holding the event, it appears that the state will not collect household hazardous waste in Rutherford County this spring.

In the past, Rutherford County had both a spring and a fall household hazardous waste pickup. But this year, Rutherford County residents are being encouraged by the state to drive to Bedford and Coffee County next week to dispose of their hazardous waste. Canceling the Rutherford county spring event was done to stretch the budget of TDEC to provide collections for hazardous waste statewide. Rutherford County will still have an HHW event in the fall.