Recycling 
Since 1993, over 12,500 households have participated in one or more of the Household Hazardous Waste collection events!
Huge amounts of toxic material have been diverted from landfill disposal. We have collected more than:
- 70,000 cans of paint
- 44,000 litres of flammable liquids
- 4,000 litres of pesticides
- 3,000 propane tanks
- 3,500 lead acid batteries.
Diversion/Cost Savings Initiatives:
Proper handling and treatment of hazardous waste has a big price tag. So, in additon to the collections held between April and November several cost savings initiatives have been developed to help keep the costs manageable.
Paint Bulking
Over 70,000 partially full cans of paint have been collected through the HHW Program. About half of these have been manually bulked (i.e., combined from their individual cans into a 205 Litre/45 gallon drum). These drums of "bulked" paint are then used for either supplementary fuel or paint recycling programs.
It’s kind of messy but it is the most economical way of dealing with thousands of paint cans.
Paint Can Recycling
What do we do with all the empty paint cans after bulking? Recycle them of course!
Since the Paint Can Recycling Program came into effect in 1994, the HHW Program has contributed over 45,000 empty steel paint cans to the recycling program of the area.
Re-Use Program
A lot of the products and materials that are collected at the HHW events are perfectly useable, they are just unwanted by their present owner. The collected materials are sorted and any which are in non-leaking containers and still contain a quantity are set aside for our once-a-week “Giveaway Days”.
Every Wednesday from May to mid-October, the HHW depot at 75 Wallbridge Crescent in the City of Belleville is open to the public for the pick-up of useable materials which have been collected at previous HHW collection events. There is no charge for these materials but a donation of food for one of the local foodbanks is welcomed.
Watch for the ad in your local newspaper or mark Wednesdays on your calendar for a trip to the Household Hazardous Waste “Giveaway Days” in Belleville.
