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Brisk business at hazard drop-off
County collects unused poisons
Friday, Aug. 7, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by MEREDITH SOMERS
Haztrain employee Joe Wood empties cans of paint — not legal to put in the county landfill — into large drums that his company takes away for proper disposal. The paint he was dumping was only a fraction of the many hazardous materials dropped off at last weekend's free collection sponsored by Charles County.
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On the bright hot Saturday morning that marked the first of August, a steady line of cars and trucks pulled up to the metal bunkers and plastic drums set outside the gate to the Charles County landfill to drop off old cans of paint, almost-empty bottles of insect poison, used fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, fertilizers, gasoline and many other household products that turn from handy to hazardous as soon as the expiration date rolls around.
Not soon enough, residents have learned that their ordinary cleaners and chemicals can't be disposed of as casually as they are purchased.
"I come to the landfill, but this is my first time here [at the hazardous material collection]," said county resident Debbie Pentz.
Pentz arrived with cans of paint and paint thinner after reading about the collection in the newspaper.
"I'm trying to be as green as I can," she said.
"The key thing is the environment," said Steve Pearson, landfill recycling supervisor for the county's public facilities department. "A lot of people pour [hazardous materials] down the drain, and that goes into their septic system and eventually leaches into the ground."
Similarly, but on a much grander scale, the county's landfill cannot absorb the chemicals into the ground without adverse effects, Pearson said. To combat this pollution and dissuade residents from incorrectly disposing of their hazardous materials, the county set up a collection for the materials.
"We would do the collection once a year, but the response was overwhelming," said Lowry Phelps, the recycling and litter control superintendent for the county. "Now it's become a nine-times-a-year collection. We use a locally based [collection] company, and they are excellent."
The company Phelps mentioned, and one the county has been using for years, is White Plains-based Haztrain, a company that offers contracts and training for handling hazardous materials.
Last weekend a handful of employees was out at the landfill to assist in the cleanup.
"It's a steady flow every month," said Chris Goddard, a field chemist who has been with Haztrain since 1996. "Some people bring one car, others will bring a trailer. But at least they're bringing it in."
Goddard said he has seen his fair share of old pesticides made with DDT, to cocktails of chemicals that have been stored so badly the cans have imploded.
Fellow Haztrain employee Joe Wood has also had his brush with scary deliveries.
"One year someone dropped off petric acid, which by itself is nothing, but over time you open and close the container lid and it crystallizes; then it becomes explosive," Wood said.
Once the bunkers are filled, and the waste that can be thrown into the landfill is sifted out, the remaining refuse is transported to a plant where it can be rendered safe for disposal.
Between 130 and 200 cars stop by for each collection. Phelps said last calendar year the county collected 26 tons of hazardous material.
"People are disappointed if we're not here on time." said Haztrain truck driver Pete Pamepinto.
"The county is pretty awesome the way it has this program going," Goddard said. "It does it every month for nine months straight. I have to say this is a pretty green county."
Out with the hazards
Charles County holds free hazardous materials collections from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. the first Saturday of each month from April to December.
Items accepted free of charge include pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer, gasoline, motor oil, antifreeze, paint, cleaning supplies, pool chemicals, batteries and other poisons.
Keep the materials in the original containers whenever possible and bring them to the collection site in cardboard boxes to ease unloading.
For more information, call the Charles County Department of Public Facilities at 301-932-3599.
