The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Hazardous waste disposal rises amid virus pandemic
Just as the coronavirus pandemic changed many aspects of daily life, it also triggered a surge of hazardous waste disposal.
Across the state, officials with entities that handle the disposal of hazardous waste items — such as used motor oil, paint, antifreeze and household chemicals — say demand for their services is the highest in years.
Jennifer Heaton-Jones, executive director of the Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority in Brookfield, said that when the organization held its first collection day June 6 in Newtown, people driving 1,200 cars showed up.
“The average number of cars we’ve gotten over eight years of doing this is 640,” Heaton-Jones said. The authority serves 12 communities in Litchfield and Fairfield counties.
Lori Vitagliano, a government and public relations specialist with the Regional Water Authority in New Haven, said the amount of hazardous waste brought to the utility company’s Sargent Drive headquarters complex is at a five-year high.
“Since opening on May 30, we’ve had 1,856 vehicles delivering 35,000 gallons of household hazardous material to the center,” Vitagliano said. “At this time last year, we had received 26,000 gallons of hazardous waste.”
The RWA has what many in the hazardous waste disposal community regard as the gold standard in terms of the scope of service. Every Saturday from May
through October, the RWA’s HazWaste Central collection program takes hazardous waste from 16 New Haven County communities and the town of Fairfield.
Vitagliano said the pandemic forcing many people to work from home is one key factor for the surge in hazardous waste disposal.
“People are doing more cleanup projects around the house, so that’s a big component,” she said. “Another possibility for the increase could be the surge of real estate activity Connecticut is seeing. People are finding this material as they pack up to move out.”
The hazardous waste collection at the RWA is staffed by workers from Clean Harbors Environmental Services in Bristol. The 17 towns served by HazWaste Central pay for the costs of the waste collection program, based upon how many residents of their communities use the service and how much material is brought for disposal.
The Housatonic Resource Recovery Authority’s hazardous waste collections are paid for in the same way HazWaste Central operates, with towns being billed for the amount of materials collected from their residents.
The June collection of material cost $67,409, according to HeatonJones. Over the past eight years, the average cost for a single collection event was $34,789, she said.
“It’s essential that we accept these materials,” she said. “If we don’t, they going to be left by the side of the road or thrown out with the garbage, which we don’t want.”
Hugh Davis, chairman of the North Haven Conservation Commission, said he has seen firsthand the increase in activity at RWA’s HazWaste Central.
“There was a huge crowd when I went their earlier this summer,” he said. “It’s a good sign.”
Not only has the pandemic increased the volume of hazardous waste being brought to collection centers around the state, it also has affected how those facilities operate.
For example, staff at the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments previously had users of the hazardous waste collection facility in Essex fill out detailed forms before dropping off materials.
But now, individuals delivering hazardous waste are asked only to show their driver’s license through a closed car window, said Janice Ehle-Meyer, a community resource planner with the regional organization. The Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments serves 16 communities from Cromwell in the north to Old Saybrook and Clinton.
The RWA’s process for taking information from individuals using HazWaste Central has gone paperless, according to Vitagliano.
To use that facility, individuals go online and fill out a form listing what materials they will be bringing in, where they are from and which Saturday they plan to go to the facility. Upon arriving at the facility, a staffer using a laptop linked to a wireless network checks in the individual.
Workers from Clean Harbors Environmental Services then take the material from the trunk of the individual’s vehicle.
Tim Phelan of Milford said despite the changes in the way HazWaste Central operates, he found it “super easy to use.”
“We were able to it through it pretty quickly,” Phelan said.
The inability to collect data from people bringing hazardous material has made it difficult to determine exactly how much of an increase in collection the Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments has experienced, but “we have definitely seen an increase in activity,” Ehle-Meyer said.
The organization has six dates for hazardous waste collection at its Essex facility plus additional collections at four satellite locations in Clinton, Cromwell, East Hampton and Middletown.
Concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic prompted the Northwest Hills Council of Governments to postpone a hazardous waste collection it had scheduled for May until August, according to Rick Lynn, the organization’s executive director.
Since making that decision earlier this year, it has rescheduled the collection until October, Lynn said. The organization serves 21 communities in Litchfield and Hartford counties.
luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com