Plenty of home-use products pose a threat to the environment if they’re thrown in the garbage. But Kalamazoo County is one of the few places in Southwest Michigan that accepts a broad range of potentially polluting trash, from antifreeze to VCRs.
People come from all over the region to use the Household Hazardous Waste Center, which is asking the county for permission to extend its hours. And the center stands as a kind of museum of everyday toxic stuff.
The HHWC only opens to the public 16 hours a week. But during those hours, it tends to see steady traffic. Late on a Tuesday morning in March, cars lined up in front of the building that sits on a corner of the county fairgrounds, each one announced by a bell.
Last year the center took in more than 600,000 pounds of waste. The items fit into three categories: things you would put in your living room, things you wouldn’t object to putting in your garage, and things that make you want to run away.
“Even though some of them were banned in 1970, we still see DDT, chlordane, arsenic,” says Facility Manager Jennifer Kosak.
Kosak says pesticides are a staple for the waste center. Today’s selection features a variety of spray bottles and cans, some bagged to contain leaks. One bears the name “Super Jet Fog,” with pictures of happy outdoor scenes.
“We even have farmers contact us and orchards, blueberry growers that want to move to a different kind of pesticide, herbicide program, a safer alternative more organic – not completely pesticide free but safer alternatives. They call on schedule and bring in quite large loads to us still,” she says.
The hazardous waste center opened in the late 1990s on a state groundwater protection grant. One thing it hopes to keep out of landfills – and the groundwater - is lead. There was a lot of it in pre-flat-screen computer monitors and TVs.
People drop off loads of them. At least two dozen televisions sat in a side room during WMUK’s visit to the center. Kosak and Foster said that was about two days’ worth.
Once they’ve been sorted, most items end up in a back building, where the hum of the ventilation system drowns out most other sounds.
“Very noisy but it keeps the vapors out of our face. The pesticides can be pretty dusty,” Kosak says.
Fluorescent bulbs get stored here.
“There are so many different household bulbs now – shorter tubes, and the u-shaped bulbs, u-shaped, halos,” says Hazardous Waste specialist Cindy Foster, taking the lid off a container as the lights rattle.
That’s across the way from an 800-gallon tank of motor oil.
Even at a hazardous waste center, a few chemicals inspire awe. One is mercury. It turns up in everything from old blood pressure readers to light switches. The staff takes extra care to contain it. Foster says that also goes for corrosives.
“There’s one called hydrofluoric acid, which is often found in aluminum siding cleaner, and that is a really aggressive acid that will actually go through your skin and start attacking your fat and – till it gets to the bone,” she says.
Kosak and Foster say some people make a point of stopping by.
“We have coloring books for the kids, we have dog treats for the dogs, so we have our regular dogs that come and expect their treat,” Kosak says.
But this is the first visit for Jim Jeffery. He drove an hour from Berrien Springs to drop off several marine batteries and some spoiled diesel fuel.
“I have a sailboat. My large 40-gallon tank developed a leak over the winter and it just all went into the bilge so I have a bunch of diesel mixed with water and this is just a great place to come and get rid of it,” he says.
Kosak and Foster say they’re proud that the center broke 10,000 customers last year. But say that’s only a fraction of the people that could use its services for free.
On Tuesday the County Commission will decide whether the center can use the money from a recent fee increase to pay for more staff hours. If that’s approved, the center hopes to open one Saturday a month starting in May.
