Household hazardous waste collection will no longer be a once in a while event in Juneau; instead it will happen more than once a week.
Beginning April 11, residents will be able to drop off everything from dead batteries to old computers to paint every Friday and Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The collection center will be open on Mondays for businesses, by appointment only.
Until now, the center has been open once a month for only seven months a year.
“So on that Sunday we get 550 people lined up wanting to get rid of their household hazardous waste,” said CBJ Public Works Director Kirk Duncan. He told the Juneau Chamber of Commerce Thursday that hazardous waste will be collected 156 times a year.
“We’ll take your TVs, we’ll take your radios, we’ll take our toasters. Bring them on. E-waste (computers), we’ll take those as well,” Duncan said.
In the past, hazardous products such as paint, new antifreeze and engine oils were shipped south to be destroyed, costing the city about $400,000 a year. Now the liquids will stay in Juneau to be used.
“So that gallon of antifreeze is not going to be shipped to Seattle, it’s just going to be sitting there and you can come, sign a release and you can take that,” he said. “And what we found out with paint is that you can take all the paint, say five gallons of blue and 8 gallons of black and 4 gallons of green, and it comes out beige. Don’t know how it does it, but it does it, and it is great primer material.”
Don’t put your kitchen grease down the drain or in the landfill. Bring it to the hazardous waste center to be shipped south.
“You can bring your oils, chicken fats, whatever, to household hazardous waste and we’ve created a contract with General Biodiesel in Seattle and they create biodiesel out of it. And we’ve been working with restaurants in the same way,” Duncan said.
The collection center is at 5436 Commercial Boulevard, just off Anka Street in the Lemon Creek area. Duncan said vehicles will not be allowed to block the road during the hazardous waste drop off.
