Household Hazardous Waste

Unfortunately, too many of the products we have lying around our homes these days should be labeled 'hazardous.' They're hazardous to our health when they're in the house, and they are also hazardous to the environment and other people's health when we throw them away. For this reason, it's really important to dispose of household materials that contain any kind of harmful chemicals (and this includes even things like beauty products and cleaners, not just antifreeze and bug killer) in a safe way. Our city has a hazardous waste disposal drop-off location that you can make an appointment with anytime, but they also do Saturday open drop-offs throughout the summer. Everyone there was very nice and helpful and happy that we had done our research to keep these products out of landfills. While we were out, we also dropped off a bag of expired medications (both over the counter and prescription) to a local pharmacy to be disposed of. There are a lot of unsavory reports about medications being thrown away improperly, particularly by being flushed down the toilet, and seeping into the water supply. It's easy to do a Google search and figure out what pharmacies in your town have a medication take-back option. Ours was right down the street.