Collection Provides Safe Solution for Hazardous Waste Disposal

Collection Provides Safe Solution 
for Hazardous Waste Disposal

By Mike Lauterborn

(for Fairfield Citizen News)

10/8/11

Fairfield, CT – As they rolled up to the men in white, locals reporting to Veteran’s Park were glad to have a safe solution for disposing their hazardous household items.

Receiving all sorts of materials from sealants, polish and anti-freeze to paint thinner, propane tanks and used car batteries, a team of 18 workers from Clean Harbors Environmental Services of Braintree, MA, were onsite at the Reef Road Park facilitating a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day Saturday.

With two tractor trailer trucks serving as bookends, the collection site include two lanes for cars to pull through, “ground poly” plastic duct-taped to the asphalt to protect against spillage accidents, and a sorting station with long tables at which the workers, in their Tyvek white jumpsuits sorted and disposed of items. Flex bins, black steel drums and reinforced wrapped boxes served as the disposal containers and a palette of all-purpose absorbent was close at hand to address any accident.

On the perimeter of the site, two Fairfield firefighters accepted car batteries and propane tanks and separated them into two ten-yard red dumpsters.

The collection was an obvious help for many, like Fairfielder Adriana Tsorvas. “We were wondering what to do with some gas that was just lying around,” she said. “It can be a big problem.”

Melissa Speight, who pulled up in an SUV with her husband, agreed. “We received the mailer and were really glad to hear about it,” she said. “We had a lot of oil-based paint and inherited a lot of chemicals from when we moved in six years ago. We were holding onto these things and have wanted to dispose of them.”

Homeowners were asked to keep hazardous wastes separate and in their original containers if possible. Those with old paint containing mercury or lead were asked to mark the cans and bring them to the site or a secondary HazWaste Central site at 90 Sargent Drive in New Haven. Officials advised that latex paint that does not contain mercury or lead could be disposed of in the regular trash.

Homeowners with other items like hearing aids, cameras, watches and electronics were directed to the Fairfield Transfer Station on One Rod Highway.