How To Get Rid Of Hazadous Products?

Let us assume that you have a hazardous product and want to get rid of it - used motor oil or half a can of drain cleaner. .This is what should not do:

• Pour it into the sink or toilet. From there it will go into the city water treatment system, which is incapable of neutralizing it. Furthermore, it can release toxic fumes and is likely to contaminate the water into which the sewage is eventually discharged.
• Pour it onto the ground or into a storm sewer. It will be washed into a stream or filter down through the earth into an underground water supply. Put it out with your regular trash. It will either be incinerated, in which case it will release toxic gases into the air, or be buried in a landfill. Then the can will open when a bulldozer runs over it, and the oil or drain cleaner will leak out and eventually contaminate the soil or water supply. Household toxics have started landfill fires that released toxic fumes across neighborhoods, and they have exploded, injuring or killing landfill workers.

Although these are the ways one should not dispose or hazardous waste, they are the methods most people use. We tend to assume that hazardous waste disposal is a problem for the industries that generate the waste, and we aren't aware of which household products are hazardous. In the pages that follow we inidicate how to handle hazardous material and suggest some safe alternatives.