What Makes Things Hazardous?
The following article is the first part in an Earth 911 week-long series on household hazardous waste (HHW).
Part 1 - What Makes Things Hazardous?
Part 2 - How to Monitor Hazardous Products
Part 3 - How to Store Hazardous Products
Part 4 - How to Properly Dispose of HHW
Picture this: You bought a beautiful mahogany armoire and wanted to make sure it always shone just as brightly as when you first fell in love with it at the furniture store. So, you go out and buy some wood polisher. Well, 10 years down the road, you move and your precious armoire has to stay behind. That wood polish is only half gone, but you have no more use for it – the polish is now household hazardous waste. And that old cell phone battery leftover from before you upgraded to a Blackberry? Yep, that’s HHW, as well.
What Makes Things Hazardous?
Household Hazardous Waste is any product that is discarded from a home or a similar source that contains volatile chemicals that are:
- Ignitable: capable of burning or causing a fire
- Corrosive: capable of eating away materials and destroying living tissue when contact occurs
- Explosive and/or Reactive: capable of causing an explosion or releasing poisonous fumes when exposed to air, water or other chemicals
- Toxic: poisonous, either immediately or over a long period of time
- Radioactive: capable of damaging and destroying cells and chromosomal material
Some examples of HHW are used motor oil, oil-based paint, auto batteries, gasoline and pesticides. The term HHW refers specifically to those products used in and around the common household, not used for any industrial purpose. These products can be harmful to the environment if they are not disposed of properly, which means they should not be dumped down the drain, and empty or partially empty hazardous waste containers should not be thrown in the garbage. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans generate 1.6 million tons of HHW per year. The average home alone can accumulate as much as 100 pounds of HHW in basements, garages and storage closets.
- http://www.epa.gov/msw/hhw-list.htm.
- http://extension.missouri.edu/owm/hhw.htm.
- http://www.govlink.org/hazwaste/house/products/.
- http://www.healthgoods.com/Education/Healthy_Home_Information/Home_Health_Hazards/household_hazardous_products.htm.
- http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/househld/hhw/Intro.pdf.
- http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/househld/hhw.htm.
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