Disposing of Hazardous Household Waste

When you get in the mood to clean out the attic, basement, or spare bedroom in your house, it’s tempting to rent a dumpster, park it in the driveway, and start hauling out everything that’s been sitting around taking up space for the past few years. For most things — broken furniture, outgrown toys, grandma’s collection of crocheted potholders — a small dumpster rental is a great option. Roll-off dumpsters can handle all kinds of things you find around the house. And getting large items into the dumpster is easy, too, since most of them have barn-style doors that swing open so you can walk stuff inside.

However, there are some things that can’t be disposed of in a roll-off dumpster rental for various reasons. Yard waste, for instance, is compostable, so it can’t be mixed with other items. It has to go in a separate dumpster. Hazardous household waste is another category of products that can’t be disposed of in small dumpster rentals. Hazardous household waste includes items that are potentially dangerous and could harm someone or something that comes in contact with them. They often harm the earth, too, which is another reason to handle them differently.

Small Haul Containers , one of Kansas City’s most trusted roll-off dumpster rental companies, helps Kansas City residents clean up their properties all the time. Our small dumpster rentals are ideal for all kinds of home improvement projects, like replacing the deck, decluttering the attic, or renovating the kitchen. Most of the time, these projects don’t involve hazardous items. But when they do, we want our customers to be able to identify them and know how to dispose of them properly.

Many household products fall into the hazardous category. Cleaning products, pesticides, motor oil, paint and paint thinner, batteries, and many other items have the potential to be harmful in some way. Some of these products contaminate the soil. Others are combustible. Still others are toxic and can cause illness if someone comes in contact with them. These types of items should be disposed of separately rather than being mixed in with other trash.

Small Haul’s FAQs include a list of what can and can’t go into a residential dumpster rental. Following is a partial list of items that are considered hazardous and should never be placed in a small dumpster rental with other household waste. This list is by no means complete, but it gives you a good idea of how to determine what’s hazardous and what’s not. Visit the Missouri Department of Natural Resources for more information.

• Car batteries
• Propane tanks
• Paint or paint cans
• Solvents of any kind
• Oil cans or drums
• Flammable liquids or materials
• Infectious or bio-medical waste
• Liquids of any kind
• Anything with Freon in it
• Any item with packaging that says DANGER!, CAUTION!, WARNING!, or POISON!

Many cities have special disposal or recycling centers that handle specific items. For instance, on the Missouri side of the state line, KC Water operates a Household Hazardous Waste program with a physical drop-off point as well as mobile collection opportunities throughout the year.

On the Kansas side, Johnson County allows residents to drop off hazardous waste by appointment only at the Johnson County Household Hazardous Waste facility. If you have a specific item you need to throw away, start with these two agencies first and go from there. A quick Google search on “how to dispose of hazardous household waste” will bring up several options.

Smaller household electronics like computers, cell phones, gaming consoles, hard drives, and printers should be recycled by special facilities designed for this purpose. Many of these items have lithium ion or other batteries in them that need special handling. In the Kansas City area, try Secure e-Cycle or search for similar facilities to dispose of small household electronics.

According to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, there are several items that are banned from landfills because they take up a lot of space in already crowded landfills and risk the chance of environmental contamination. At the top of the list is household appliances. Refrigerators, stoves, freezers, dishwashers, dryers, trash compactors, water heaters…the list of appliances we can’t live without is long. When we’re finished with them, they often still have some life left in them. Check with local charitable organizations to see if they can use the appliance. These items are often needed and frequently unattainable due to budget constraints. You might just make someone’s day if you give them your used refrigerator.

Another option is to recycle the appliance. Check with the manufacturer to see if they have a recycling program for your unit. You may be able to drop it off at a local facility for proper and safe disposal.

Here at Small Haul, we take the stress out of house project cleanup by making our roll-off dumpster rental process quick and easy. When the time is right, just visit our website to check the availability of our containers and reserve the size that’s right for your project. We’ll bring the dumpster out on the appointed day and come back and pick it up at the end of your rental period.

We still want to help with your waste disposal needs, but we have to follow state and local guidelines while doing it. If you do the same, that keeps everyone safe!

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