Household Hazardous Waste: Keep Chemicals Out of Our Waterways

You’re cleaning out the garage and find bottles of products you haven’t used in years. Paint stripper, lawn herbicide, old transmission fluid, and more. These items no longer belong in your garage, but where should they go?

These home products qualify as Household Hazardous Waste (HHW). Even if it seems like a quick fix, these items should never be dumped down an outdoor storm drain or household drain. Improperly disposing of chemicals like these can be dangerous to you, others, and the environment.

What is Household Hazardous Waste?

Household Hazardous Waste includes “leftover household products that can catch fire, react, or explode under certain circumstances, or that are corrosive or toxic,” according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. These are often products we store in the garage, under the sink, or cleaning cabinet.

Common Household Hazardous Waste includes:

• Cleaning products: drain cleaners, oven cleaners, bleach, ammonia, pool chemicals
• Yard and garden supplies: herbicide, pesticide, insecticide, fertilizer, rodent poison
• Automotive fluids: motor oil, transmission fluid, brake fluid, coolant, gasoline, car polish
• Home improvement supplies: oil-based paints and varnishes, paint thinners, paint strippers, aerosol cans
• Electronics: fluorescent light bulbs, car batteries, lithium-ion batteries, old thermostats containing mercury
• Miscellaneous: asbestos materials, fire extinguishers, propane tanks

The Impact of Household Hazardous Waste

While these are all useful products in the right situation, household hazardous waste can become a problem when it is no longer useful. It might seem like a simple solution to dump an unneeded product from your garage into the storm drain in front of your home. However, a storm drain is not a safe way to dispose of these chemicals.

Storm drains are designed to transport stormwater away from homes and streets and into local waterways to avoid residential flooding. The water is not treated first before it reaches ponds, streams, and rivers. If household hazardous waste is poured down a storm drain, these chemicals can degrade water quality, harm wildlife, hurt people spending time outside, and even contaminate drinking water in some communities. Hazardous waste or not, nothing should ever be put into storm drains. Fortunately, it’s easy to remember: only rain goes down the drain.

So, is a household drain an acceptable option for dumping waste? Although household drains lead to a sanitary sewer and wastewater treatment plant, the wastewater system is not designed to manage and clean these chemicals. Especially for homes on septic systems, toxic chemicals can cause a system failure if they kill off the beneficial bacteria that breaks down normal sewage. Also, household hazardous waste can corrode plumping or release toxic fumes back into homes.

What to Do: How to Handle Household Hazardous Waste

Instead, these chemicals can be properly disposed of at a Household Hazardous Waste facility. These facilities are open on select days and free of charge for Illinois residents. A list of accepted items is available on individual facility websites.

Permanent Disposal Facilities in Northern Illinois

Additionally, some retail stores offer household hazardous waste recycling for specific items. For example, auto repair shops may accept car batteries and automotive fluids. Some office supply stores accept electronic waste. Check your local stores for available recycling services and fees.

Protecting Our Waterways Starts at Home

Protecting local rivers and streams from water pollution starts at home. By properly disposing of household hazardous waste at a designated facility, you care for your health and the environment. Even small actions like this can make a difference for our community.