MOHAVE COUNTY — The twice annual Mohave County household hazardous waste cleanup got its fall staging. Vehicles lined up as early as dawn for the 8 am start Sunday. Nearly 40 workers from county, city, and law enforcement helped control traffic and off load the waste that would wind up being recycled rather than filling landfills or worst yet, getting dumped in rural and desert areas.
The two things were very evident from the start. Number one, how extremely organized it was, and, secondly, the pleasantness and politeness of all the people involved in offloading and sorting all the material, including law enforcement helping direct traffic flow.
Mohave County Environmental Quality Specialist Linda Gandara talks about these household hazardous disposal events that occur once in the spring and one in the fall.
“Typically, we have anywhere from about 200 to, at absolute most, I think we’ve seen 400 cars. These hazardous items, if they were to end up in the landfill, it could be really, really detrimental to the landfill. It could cause all kinds of fires. We definitely don’t need any of these items in the landfill for chemical reactions, toxins, things like that. We don’t want this stuff out in our desert, which is actually a very common place where it ends up. All of these items go out for different types of recycling.”
Gandara outlines some help from an outside source, in addition to county and city workers.
“A lot of the crew is from the crew that we brought in from A. C. T. Republic to do the intake and then they take it back to their various facilities, where they do the recycling.”
There is one major item that can be handled without the need to bring it to this twice yearly recycling event.
Gandara explained, “Latex paint, when it’s in its fully dried state is NOT a hazardous item. When it’s liquid and wet, it is. But when, once it’s dry, it’s no longer hazardous and it can be, cried out and then thrown out with your household trash.”
Household hazardous waste disposal locations are operated twice a year. Drop offs are free in Kingman and Bullhead City. Information about the collection sites is put out through public sources by the Mohave County Environmental Services at www.Mohave.gov Environmental Quality/Waste Disposal.
