Reduce the Risk for Trash Fires

Did you know that certain types of materials, when improperly placed into the trash, can be significant fire hazards, capable of starting fires?

Materials such as rechargeable batteries, propane and oxygen tanks, butane lighters, ashes from fireplaces and barbecue grills, and other types of hazardous materials are capable of starting fires when

• mixed in loads of waste and picked up by refuse collection trucks
• waste is transported in rail cars on the way to waste processing or disposal facilities; and while
• waste is being processed at Montgomery County’s Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station or at the Resource Recovery Facility

Therefore, to reduce the risk for trash fires, DO NOT place the following materials in your trash

• Flammable or combustible liquids (such as gasoline, oil-based paints, or kerosene)
• Hazardous materials (including items such as ammonia, bleach, pool chemicals, pesticides, paint thinners, etc.)
• Canisters containing propellants (including butane or propane)
• Cylinders containing compressed gas (such as propane, helium, oxygen, acetylene or fire extinguishers)
• Rechargeable batteries (which contain heavy metals, including lithium, nickel cadmium or lead-acid)
• Ashes (from fireplaces, fire pits or barbecue grills) – more information on proper disposal of ashes from Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (PDF)
• Unknown substances (will be managed as Household Hazardous Waste)

These items should be properly disposed through Montgomery County’s Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program, or other special collection processes available at the Montgomery County Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station, located at 16101 Frederick Road in Derwood.

Stay in the Loop and Sign up for our Recycling Newsletter

Register your email address to receive the Civic Loop Recycling e-newsletter for regular updates on trash and recycling programs in Montgomery County, MD.

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Download the Reduce the Risk for Trash Fires Postcard

Download the Postcard (PDF)

Reduce the Risk for Trash Fires. Keep Certain Materials Out of Your Trash Can.

Reduce the Risk for Trash Fires. 

Keep Certain Materials Out of Your Trash Can. 

Fires can occur in piles of trash as trash is collected in trash trucks, and when trash is delivered and aggregated at the Transfer Station and the Resource Recovery Facility for processing. Certain materials can individually pose a fire hazard.  Other items pose a risk for fire when they come into contact with other materials. 

To reduce the risk of trash fires at your home, in our trash collection vehicles, or at our disposal facilities, please keep the following materials or items out of your trash:

·        Hazardous materials

·        Chemicals

·        Gasoline and other flammable liquids

·        Oil-based paints

·        Rechargeable batteries (containing heavy metals, including lithium)

·        Ash from fireplaces or fire pits or barbeque grills
 More information on ash disposal

To dispose of these items safely, use our Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Program or Special Collection Processes at the Montgomery County Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station. For details, visit www.montgomerycountymd.gov/hazardouswaste or call 311 (inside Montgomery County) or 240-777-0311 (outside of Montgomery County).

How to dispose of pesticide containers

Doing autumn clean up in your home and garden? Use our guide to determine how to dispose of pesticide containers:

If your pesticide container	Dispose of the container this way
is completely empty of pesticide product	regular household trash
has pesticide product remaining	household hazardous waste

 

How do I dispose of pesticide containers as household hazardous waste?

Bring containers with remaining pesticide from your home to our Hazardous Waste Drop-off at the Shady Grove Transfer Station and Processing Facility. This drop-off is open daily. See details about our Hazardous Waste Drop-off program.

 

Can I recycle my pesticide container?

No, do not recycle your pesticide containers.

Pesticide residue acts as a containment in empty containers, making them unacceptable for recycling. And, when residents send containers with remaining products to the Recycling Center, the products can create dangerous situations.

Martin Luther King, Jr., Day 2015 - modified recycling and trash collection schedule

Monday, January 19, 2015 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day - is a recycling and trash collection holiday. After the holiday, all County-provided recycling and trash collections will slide, and be one day later than normal.

If your collection day is	Your collection day this week is
Monday	Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Tuesday	Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Wednesday	Thursday, January 22, 2015
Thursday	Friday, January 23, 2015
Friday	Saturday, January 24, 2015

If you have questions or concerns about your County-provided collection, please contact the Montgomery County Customer Service Center (MC311) at 311 (out-of-County: 240-777-0311, TTY: 301-251-4850) or @311MC311.

If you (or your community) have a private contract for your trash collection, or if you live in a municipality, our schedule announcements may not apply to your trash service -- check with your hauler or community manager.

Get our full 2015 holiday calendar, customized for your address.

Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station

Transfer Station location, hours and other details

• Saturday, January 17, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Sunday, January 18, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Monday, January 19, 2014: Entire facility closed.

Poolesville Beauty Spot

Beauty Spot location, hours and other details

• Saturday, January 17, 2014: Open with normal hours.
• Sunday, January 18, 2014: Open with normal hours.

Household hazardous waste disposal is available every day

Today's Washington Post "Home" section includes an article on "Tiny steps toward decluttering your house". One of the tips is to bring no-longer-needed cleaners from your under-the-kitchen-sink cabinet or bathroom vanities to our Household Hazardous Waste drop-off.

This drop-off is located at the Shady Grove Transfer Station and Processing Facility, and is open daily (but not on January 19, 2015!). It even has evening hours on weekdays! See Household Hazardous Waste drop-off details, including a list of accepted items.

Disposing batteries - #12daysofrecycling

Discovering dead batteries as you pull out your camera for holiday photos, use small appliances for holiday prep, or enjoy new and old gadgets and toys?

Dispose of dry cell and alkaline batteries in your regular trash.

Bring batteries needing special disposal to our Hazardous Waste drop-off at the Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station.

See more details about battery disposal in Montgomery County.

Thanks for joining our #12daysofrecycling!

Stock up for your next project at our Paint Giveaway

Get ready to... paint! If you need paint or stain for your next project, come visit our Paint Giveaway at the Transfer Station. It is located in at Hazardous Waste Drop-off. See Paint Giveaway details

Our "inventory" changes daily, and the price is right: "shop" at no charge!

When people bring paint to the Hazardous Waste Drop-off, we check the full and nearly-full cans to see whether the product inside is still in usable condition. If it is, we sort the cans by type, and set them out for you to take.

Selecting paint from our Giveaway is a chance to try out colors, brands, and finishes. Be creative - we'd love to see photos of your projects!

If you have unneeded paint yourself, follow our easy instructions for handling latex paint. If you have oil-based paints and finishes, use them up, pass them on, or bring them to us for hazardous waste disposal.

--Susanne Wiggins

Prescription Drug Take-Back Day - Saturday, September 25, 2010

Is your medicine cabinet home to expired, unused, or unwanted prescription drugs? Bring these items to one of three local Prescription Drug Take-Back Day drop-off sites on Saturday, September 25, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Participation is free and anonymous, with no questions asked.

The Montgomery County Department of Police will have drop-off sites in Rockville and Bethesda. Read the Montgomery County news release.

Montgomery County Police Headquarters
2350 Research Blvd
Rockville, MD 20850
map for Montgomery County Police Headquarters

2nd District Police Station
7359 Wisconsin Ave
Bethesda, MD 20814
map for 2nd District Police Station

The Rockville City Police Department will have a drop-off site at its police station. Read the Rockville news release.

Rockville City Police Station
111 Maryland Ave
Rockville, MD 20850
map for Rockville City Police Station

Can't attend the Take-Back Day? Follow our instructions for how to dispose of medicine / prescription drugs.

Not in Montgomery County? Find a Take-Back site near you.

It's National Poison Prevention Week

This week -- from March 15 to March 21, 2009 -- is National Poison Prevention Week.

Did you know these facts about poisons?

• Most poisonings involve everyday household items such as medicines, cleaning supplies, cosmetics and personal care items.
• 93 percent of all poison exposures occur in the home.
• 51 percent of poison exposures occur in children under the age of six.
• Over 70 percent of all poison fatalities occur in adults ages 20 to 59.

Where should you turn for help? The National Capital Poison Center serves our area. Have a poison emergency? Call 1-800-222-1222 immediately for help at no charge!

Some resources for poison prevention information:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (with podcasts)
• Poison Help (even includes a poison jingle ringtone for your phone!)
• US Environmental Protection Agency

If you find no-longer-needed or wanted poisons in your home, garage or garden, bring them to our Hazardous Waste program. Prevention is better than the cure!

How do we dispose of spray paint - latex & oil based?

From our mailbag:

How do we dispose of spray paint - latex & oil based?

Thanks for asking, B. We have information for oil-based paint and latex- or water-based paint on our website. But, that applies for products applied with brushes or rollers. For advice specific to spray paint cans, I put your question to our Hazardous Waste program manager.

Here is what I learned:

• Use up the spray paint product. Make sure the can no longer has pressure in it by holding down the valve until it is empty. Then, put the empty can in the trash.
• Or, bring the can to us at a Household Hazardous Waste drop-off site, and we'll extract any remaining product and depressurize it.

In addition to this advice... if there's an appreciable amount of product left in the can, and you no longer have a use for it, consider offering the can to your neighbors through your local Freecycle Network group.

Compact fluorescent bulb recycling is now easier

Yesterday, I received this blog comment:

You should never throw your cfl bulbs in the regular trash because it contains mercury. It takes just one teaspoon of mercury to contaminate a 20 acre lake forever. It is also illegal to throw them into the trash in many states.

Were you writing in response to this blog entry about compact fluorescent light disposal? In the year that has passed since that entry was posted, our CFL recycling opportunities have expanded.

We have identified eight local retail stores which accept residents' CFLs for recycling. That's in addition to the Hazardous Waste drop-off at our Solid Waste Transfer Station and our community Household Hazardous Waste collection events. (Our community events have ended for 2008; we'll post our 2009 schedule as soon as it's announced in the Spring.)

We'll continue to update our map of local CFL recycling locations, and other CFL disposal tips as this information evolves.

Hazardous Waste Collection announced for October 18, 2008

Our first Fall 2008 Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) community collection event is on the calendar!

Saturday, October 18, 2008, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Silver Spring International Middle School
313 Wayne Ave
Silver Spring, MD 20910
(Dale Dr. & Wayne Ave.)

In addition to the HHW "satellite" events, we have our Household Hazardous Waste dropoff at the Solid Waste Transfer Station. That's open to you daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Details about our Household Hazardous Waste program

What's this about mercury in compact fluorescent bulbs?

It's true: those energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs harbor a small amount of mercury within them. Because of the mercury, it's best to dispose of burned-out compact fluorescent bulbs as hazardous waste, and to clean up carefully if one breaks.

Rick Dimont, our Hazardous Waste and Waste Reduction Program Manager, was interviewed in last night's WUSA9 TV news segment, titled "CFLs: Handle with Care."

Household Hazardous Waste collection dates announced for Fall 2007

What are your options when the Household Hazardous Waste dropoff at the Shady Grove Transfer Station is too far away? See whether one of our community collection events is more conveniently located for you!

Our community collection schedule for Fall 2007 has just been announced. The dates and locations are:

• Saturday, October 20, 2007
  
  Silver Spring International Middle School
  313 Wayne Ave, Silver Spring
  (Dale Dr. & Wayne Ave.)
  
  
• Saturday, November 17, 2007
  
  Westland Middle School
  5511 Massachusetts Avenue, Bethesda
  (west of Little Falls Parkway)

Want reminders about these dates as they get closer, as well as updates about future collection events? I'm glad you asked! Subscribe to our Household Hazardous Waste newsletter.

Details about our Household Hazardous Waste program

Household Hazardous Waste collection in Bethesda - June 30, 2007

Our next Household Hazardous Waste community collection event is on Saturday, June 30, 2007, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Location:
Westland Middle School
5511 Massachusetts Avenue (west of Little Falls Parkway)
Bethesda MD 20816

We have a Household Hazardous Waste drop-off facility at the Shady Grove Transfer Station. It is open daily, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Depending on where you live within the County, however, traveling out to the Transfer Station for drop-offs may not be convenient. We offer our community collection events to make proper disposal of your household hazardous products easier.

Want to receive email notices about our Household Hazardous Waste community collection event schedule? Subscribe to our email list for this topic.

How to dispose of leftover latex paint

In my last post, I hinted that latex paint from your home projects could be easily disposed of at home.

Ideally, you'll use up all of the paint from your project (with the possible exception of a small amount for touch-ups), or you'll be able to give the remainder away. When neither is an option...

Simply dry up the remaining latex paint, and then put the solidified paint into your regular household trash. Allow small amounts to dry in a well-ventilated area. For larger amounts, use paint hardener, or alternatives like mulch, kitty litter, or shredded paper. (Detailed latex paint disposal instructions)

If the paint can is metal, we'll recycle it for you! After trash is burned in our waste-to-energy facility, a magnet pulls ferrous metals out of the remaining ash. That collected metal is then recycled.

Remember, please do not bring latex paint to our Household Hazardous Waste Collections, because it is not a hazardous material. However, leftover oil-based paint should always be disposed of as hazardous waste.

Paint giveaway mentioned on Craigslist

This morning, someone posted an "offer" for the free paint we have at the Shady Grove Transfer Station to the "free items" section of Craigslist. Thanks for the publicity!

The paint comes from residents who bring it to our Household Hazardous Waste drop-off program. Instead of disposing of it, we are pleased to offer the full cans we receive back to you for reuse.

Latex/water-based paint is not a hazardous waste. In fact, it is very expensive for us to handle it as such. We found that paint disposal was taking a significant amount of money from our hazardous waste budget. The free paint program is one way for us to more cost-effectively handle the paint brought to us. That leaves more money available for processing the materials which truly do need special disposal.

It's easy to dispose of the leftovers from your latex painting projects at home. Details to follow in my next post...

How to dispose of compact fluorescent light bulbs

Updated information posted November 20, 2008

From our mailbag:

Do electric light bulbs and fluorescent tubes go into the
recycling bin?

Thanks for asking! No, the only glass we accept in our curbside blue bin recycling program is that used for bottles and jars.

To dispose of incandescent ("regular") light bulbs, please wrap them in paper, and place them into your regular household trash. (Why put otherwise recyclable paper into the trash? Recycling as much as possible is important, but your safety and the collection crew's safety is even more important. Wrapping the bulb in paper helps prevent injury by containing the glass shards if the bulb breaks.)

To dispose of your compact fluorescent light bulbs, please take them to our Household Hazardous Waste drop-off sites, if this is practical for you. (They contain a small amount of mercury.) If it is not practical, please wrap and put the compact fluorescent bulb into your regular household trash, as you would an incandescent bulb.

What if a bulb breaks? The US EPA website has clean-up instructions for broken compact fluorescent light bulbs.

To help your household be prepared, I've updated our "How to Recycle/Dispose of: Fluorescent light bulbs and tubes" page with this information.

New Federal Guidelines for Disposal of Prescription Drugs

On Tuesday, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a press release announcing new guidelines for proper disposal of prescription drugs.

The webpage with the guideline details includes a video clip demonstrating one way to prepare no-longer-needed drugs for disposal.

The guidelines recommend checking for local community take-back programs for prescription drugs -- the Division of Solid Waste Services does not offer this, and I am not aware of any other take-back opportunities in the greater Washington, DC, area. (If you do, please let me know!)

Our instructions for prescription drug disposal -- which mirror the Federal ones -- are on our website. We also have a few medicine recycling organizations included in our Use It Again guide.

Please remember to avoid "sea burial" in your toilet or sink for most medications. Why? Because it's best to keep those drugs out of our waste water stream, and ultimately our environment.

Household Hazardous Waste Collection: Silver Spring, May 19, 2007

We've announced our first community Household Hazardous Waste collection event for 2007!

This collection will operate from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m:

• Saturday, May 19, 2007: Silver Spring
  Silver Spring International Middle School
  313 Wayne Ave, Silver Spring
  (Dale Dr. & Wayne Ave.)

Updated 2/16/07: we've now got a collection on Saturday, June 30, 2007, too! It will be held at Westland Middle School, 5511 Massachusetts Avenue (west of Little Falls Parkway) ,
Bethesda

Reminder: the Shady Grove Transfer Station has a permanent HHW receiving area, open year-round, daily, 9 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Paint Giveaway ends for the winter season

We've closed our popular paint giveaway at the Shady Grove Transfer Station for the winter months.

Why?

Freezing temperatures damage latex paint. Because our Household Hazardous Waste drop-off (the home of our paint giveaway program) is not insulated, the material we receive and store there is subject to freezing and thawing over the winter. So, before we give you bad paint, we'd rather suspend the giveaway for a few months.

What if your paint freezes at home?

Your paint may still be salvagable. Check out The Family Handyman for advice on using latex paint that's been frozen, complete with a photo!