Chatham County (NC) 2022 Household Hazardous Waste Events

 

2022 Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Recycling Dates 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM

No Business Waste and No Trash Allowed

The Household Hazardous Waste events for 2022 will take place on the following Saturdays:

• March 19
• April 23*- fourth Saturday due to Easter
• May 21
• June 18
• July 16*
• August 20
• September 17
• October 15
• November 19*

*The Sheriff's Office will be on-site during these HHW events to conduct a medicine take back. 

Location: Solid Waste & Recycling Main Facility

28 County Services Road

Pittsboro, North Carolina 27330

The next Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) event will be Saturday, March 19, 2022 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. HHW events are a way for residents to dispose of hazardous materials safely. Decals are not required, but residents will need to show their NC Driver License with their current address. HHW is only for households; no hazardous waste from businesses will be accepted.

At HHW events, the county accepts such items as oil-based paints, solvents, stains, bleach, aerosols, cleaners, pesticides, brake fluid, fluorescent light bulbs, propane tanks, etc. For a complete list, please visit the Household Hazardous Waste webpage or contact the Solid Waste & Recycling Division at 919-542-5516 or recycle@chathamnc.org

New Latex Paint Limit

Since 2021, residents will only be allowed to bring 20 gallons of latex paint cans to each Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) event.

Approximately 60% of all the material brought to HHW events is liquid latex paint. It is the most costly item we collect in total. Yet, latex paint is only hazardous when in a liquid form. Latex paint can easily be dried out and thrown away with your regular trash. This new paint limit will help Solid Waste & Recycling save our budget to handle more hazardous wastes.

Residents can bring 20 gallons of latex paint cans per HHW event. If you have a 1 gallon paint can that has half a gallon of paint in it, it will count as 1 gallon. Feel free to combine partial cans of paint, as long as they are all latex paint. Please note that this new rule only applies to latex paint. Any other type of paint (oil-based, spray, etc.) cannot be hardened, so residents should bring it to an HHW event and there is no limit.

Latex paint can be safely dried out and put in with your regular trash, whether at the 12 Collection Centers (current decal required) or in your curbside trash. It does not have to be completely solidified– more like a paste; as long as the latex paint can no longer run out of the can.

To dry latex paint:

• Take off the lid and let it sit outside in a covered area, so it does not get rained on.
• Add kitty litter, sand, or sawdust.

Instead of drying it up, you can also paint something, then throw that item away once the paint is dry.

Do not bring dried paint cans to HHW events; throw them away in your regular trash. Attendants at the Collection Centers may ask to check that the paint is dry.

HHW events are held the third Saturday of each month, March through November.

Chatham County Residents—How to Recycle Specific Items

Do you have questions about what can properly be thrown into your recycling (or a public) recycling bin or whether that item should be placed in a trash bin?  To learn how to properly recycle a wide range of items, see these guidelines provided by the Chatham County (NC) Recycling Center.

After Action Report of the FHA/GREEN SCENE October 16, 2021 Annual Fall 3-in-1 Recycling Event

Greetings,

First, a big THANK  YOU to Pam, Maggie, Gene, Beryl, Leigh, Jon, Mark, Maarten, Marilyn, and Bill for your time and energy this past Saturday morning, as well as for some of the pre-event preparations.  Needless to say, we couldn't have made it happen without your support.
Thanks, too, to Susie Eckblad for posting the publicity posters in all the community mail kiosks.  And, of course, to Amy Ghiloni, on behalf of ReMax United Realty, for her generous financial sponsorship.

Your pooled effort resulted in the removal of 5,400 pounds ( two and three quarters TONS ) of unwanted, shredded, paper from our file cabinets, garages, and attics.  That paper is on it's way to a facility in Georgia that will convert it into "toilet tissue"   -    some of which just might find it's way back into our community in that much-valued form.

The Chatham County Sheriff's people collected more than 45 pounds of "unwanted medications."  That may not sound like a lot    -    until you do some math ( as I did ) and figure out that that is more than 22,000 pills.  Pills that won't be flushed down the toilet to contaminate Jordan Lake, or put in the garbage to contaminate a land fill.

And, by checking   -    and re-charging when necessary    -    dozens of community fire extinguishers, the folks from the United Fire and Safety Equipment Company have helped to make Fearrington a safer place to live.

So now you can all relax and enjoy the upcoming Holidays    -    and get ready for our next "3-in-1" Event on the third Saturday in May, 2022 (May 21st).

THANK  YOU, again, for your help !

Jason Welsch
Moderator, Fearrington Green Scene
914-806-4852 ( Cell Phone )

An Invitation from Francis DiGiano

It’s gratifying to see membership grow to almost 100! Our goal is to inform neighbors of the shoreline about the mission of Clean Jordan Lake (cleanjordanlake.org), a small nonprofit with no paid staff. We want to restore beauty to protect wildlife and improve recreational value.

In 12 years, 8,400 volunteers have participated in over 600 trash cleanup events, resulting in removal of18,400 bags of trash and a startling 4,800 tires (see https://www.cleanjordanlake.org/cleanuptotals). No agency of local or state government can do this for us. Should you have interest in a leadership role, we currently seek a few Board members willing to devote on average about 4 hours per month. Small nonprofits depend on Board members not only for advice but for project management. Our needs include:1) fund raising to buy a pontoon boat for surveillance of trash and ferrying of volunteers during cleanup evets; 2) management of existing Google Sheets, Google Data Studio and GIS to keep track of the where and when of rash cleanups (see RESULTS page at cleanjordanlake.org); 3) management of social media; and 4) outreach to elected officials and staff in the 8 counties of the lake’s watershed to foster trash prevention programs.

Please Reply to vanmurray@cleanjordanlake.org, President of Clean Jordan Lake, if interested.

Rocky River Heritage Foundation Volunteers Clean-Up

CH@T: Rocky River Heritage Foundation's volunteers conduct clean-up effort

Environmental and volunteer organizations routinely devote hundreds of hours every month to keep lakes and rivers in North Carolina as pristine as possible. This week, we speak with Pamela Hawe, a member of the Rocky River Heritage Foundation; foundation members and other river organizations recently completed Chatham's first "Creek Week" program, working to clean a portion of the Rocky River.

Advancing Work on Reducing the Environmental Damages of a World Full of Forever Plastics

 

For a sustainable future, scientists rethink plastics and devices

Modern society is now starting to feel the real-world effects of climate change, after more than a century of unrestrained carbon emissions, overuse of natural resources, and irresponsible production of material waste.

No Water, No Microchips: What Is Happening in Taiwan?

No Water No Microchips: What Is Happening In Taiwan?

Water wars are no longer from apocalyptic imagery. Something as dramatic is already happening in Taiwan, where a drought is causing chip manufacturers to compete with locals for water use. Starting on June 1, in fact, the country will cut water supply for the major chip making hub Taichung.

Earth is now trapping an 'unprecedented' amount of heat, NASA says

 

Earth is now trapping an 'unprecedented' amount of heat, NASA says

The amount of heat Earth traps has roughly doubled since 2005, contributing to more rapidly warming oceans, air and land, according to new research from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "The magnitude of the increase is unprecedented," said Norman Loeb, a NASA scientist and lead author of the study, which was published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

A Decade After Deepwater Horizon, We're Still Cleaning Up Oil Spills The Same Way

A decade after Deepwater Horizon, we're still cleaning up oil spills the same way

Off the coastline of Sri Lanka, where a burning cargo ship has been spilling toxic chemicals and plastic pellets over the past two weeks, the government is preparing for the next possible stage of the disaster: As the ship sinks, it may also spill some of the hundreds of tons of oil in its fuel tanks.

Photo: The MV X-Press Pearl on June 2nd, 2021. [Photo: Sri Lankan Air Force/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock]

After-Action Report on the FHA/GREEN SCENE May 15, 2021 Annual Spring 3-in-1 Community Recycling Event

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

194 vehicles brought 4,560 pounds (2.28 tons) of paper for shredding (which the Shimar Recycling shredding company bailed and shipped to a Georgia Pacific toilet paper manufacturing plant in southern Georgia).

EMBEDDED ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS FROM THIS COLLECTION
Recycling 4,500 pounds of paper had the additional estimated associated (embedded) effects of saving 41 trees, 912 gallons of oil, 7.2 cubic yards of landfill space, 9,600 kilowatts of energy and 27,840 gallons of water, and represents 240 pounds less of air pollution!

ORGANIZING CREDITS:
The FHA and the Fearrington GREEN SCENE partnered again this year to organize and conduct this event. We express special appreciation to:

• Fearrington residents Amy and Phil Ghiloni and her company ReMax/United of Southern Village
  
  
  
• The FHA Board of Directors
• Maggie Tunstall, Chairperson of the event for the FHA
• Jason Welsch, Chairperson of the event for the GREEN SCENE

EVENT PARTICIPATION CREDITS:
Most importantly, the almost 200 residents who brought their recyclables to the event; and the following VOLUNTEERS who worked at the event -- Maggie Tunstall, Amy & Phil Ghiloni, Gene Rogers, Bil Rosenfeld, Stewart Priddy, Pam Bailey, Jon Darling, and Jason Welsch.

PARTICIPATING SERVICE PROVIDERS:
We also appreciate the good work performed by the crew from Shimar Recycling, Inc. of Durham, the Chatham County Sheriff's Department in collecting 36.2 pounds* of no longer wanted or expired medicines for proper disposal (compared to 13.2 pounds last year), and Leon Hooker and his crew from United Fire & Safety Equipment Co. in Goldsboro for inspecting, refilling and servicing expired fire extinguishers, or selling 40 new extinguishers, and answering questions about extinguishers.

Lt. Jessica Norton reported that the total weight of medicines collected by the Sheriff's Department for proper disposal throughout the County at this event was their second highest one-day collection since January first.

This was a great community event for which we all offer thanks to everyone listed above.

The NEXT 3-in-1 Recycling Event will be the Annual Fall event on 

Saturday, October 16, 2021.