Orcas Leads the County in Hazardous Waste Collection

By Helen Venada, San Juan County Hazardous Waste Coordinator

Thank you to our islands’ community for another year of successful hazardous waste collections!  It was especially helpful that several participants, followed the tips for preparing for a hazardous waste event and sorted out potentially-reusable items and solidified their latex paints and stains for solid waste disposal.  That saved a lot of staff time and helped to move the traffic line more efficiently.

For those of you interested, here are some statistics from the collections:

• Orcas Island – 106 participants +10 businesses; 7.9 tons collected
• Lopez Island – 49 participants + 1 business; 2.1 tons
• San Juan Island – 71 participants + 16 businesses; 6.2 tons

We were able to provide for reuse about 150 still-good chemical products, thanks to several volunteers.  Arthur Koch from the Orcas Exchange, Patty Miller, Dan Post, Dennis Rosenman, Elizabeth Anderson, and Judy Moody brought their good humor and willingness to help the cause at the three island events.  We all learned from each other.

Thank you, also, to our county solid waste staff for their patience and continued help in keeping the activities rolling smoothly:  Ronni Silva, Robert Hammermeister and Russ Bruland from Orcas; Neil Hanson and Bob Chonka from Lopez; and, Ron Garcia, Rawson Hirschel, and Jeff Clark from San Juan.

And, thank YOU for your continued support and for all your efforts to prevent contamination to our water, soils, and air while making your households and businesses safe from potentially hazardous materials.   Please, keep waste reduction in mind when you choose to purchase any chemical product.  Ask yourself:

• Do I really need this item?
• Could I use a smaller quantity?  Could someone else use up my excess?
• Could I buy a product that’s toxic-free or is less toxic?

Anything we can each do personally to prevent waste reduces the amount we need to export for disposal; it also reduces our own disposal costs and county waste management costs.