Household Hazardous Waste event returns April 24

If you are like most people, you've let all sorts of things collect in your garage or storage space that you really shouldn't keep around.

That's why Saturday, April 24, will be an important day as Bedford County holds its Household Hazardous Waste Collection event.

The event is to be held at Big Springs Shopping Center from 8 a.m. until noon and is being sponsored by the county's solid waste authority and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

An item is considered "hazardous waste" if it has corrosive, flammable, toxic or reactive characteristics.

Residents must bring in items that are hazardous and not recyclable or the state could penalize the county and take it off the list for future similar events, local officials were told.

Organizers say that any resident may participate in this free event, but no waste will be accepted from businesses, churches, schools and other such organizations.

Items that will be accepted include automotive and marine products, like oil and fuel additives, grease and rust solvents, cleaners for carburetor and fuel injectors, and starter fluids, antifreeze or coolants.

Things you use for those home maintenance and improvement, like oil-based paint, stains and varnishes, used strippers and paint thinners, adhesives or wallpaper remover or driveway sealant or roofing tar, can be turned in.

Other acceptable items that can be disposed of include pesticides and fertilizer, wood preservatives, as well as pool chemicals, medicines and drugs, aerosols and compressed gas and fluorescent tubes.

New guidelines apply to latex paint. Residents with large amounts to dispose must visit the new paint recycling/drying center now open at Shelbyville's transfer station on Blue Ribbon Parkway.

Items that will not be allowed include medical wastes like needles and sharps, fireworks, gunpowder or ammunition and automotive gas tanks, laboratory chemicals, radioactive waste (excluding smoke detectors) and empty containers.

Solid Waste Coordinator Gay Ervin stated last month that TDEC officials used to consider the waste events a success by counting the number of households that brought materials, but that's not the case anymore.

"Now, it's not how many people bring something, it's the quality of the items that they bring," she explained. "It depends on the quality, not the quantity, whether the state gives us another event."

Alkaline batteries no longer contain mercury and can be disposed of in the trash. Also, electronics should be recycled at the county's drop-off location at DSC Services on Cedar King Road.