RethinkWaste Reaches Household Hazardous Waste Collection Milestone

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.

To participate, residents can call 800-HHW-PKUP (800-449-7587) or send an email to atyourdoor@wm.com to schedule a collection appointment with At Your Door Special Collection (formerly known as Curbside, Inc., the company contracted by RethinkWaste to provide the collection service.)

At Your Door will then send residents a collection kit through the mail that includes an instruction sheet, plastic bag for those items that must be bagged, labels and a tie for the bag.

At Your Door will then send a collection vehicle on the day of the appointment and collect the items from the resident. The items must be prepared following the instructions provided and placed near the front door, garage or other area near the front of the home by 7 a.m. on the scheduled day.

Burlingame was the newest RethinkWaste Member Agency to offer the program to its residents starting Feb. 1, 2013. The other Member Agencies rolled out the program earlier to their respective communities. There are no limits on the number of appointments residents can schedule.

For more details on the program, visit www.RethinkWaste.org.