Household Hazardous Waste and How to Avoid It
Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
Episode 80
Household Hazardous Waste and How to Avoid It
Whenever someone mentions hazardous waste, you most likely think of big industry, or perhaps even radioactive material that is stored in some unknown place out of harms way. But unfortunately we commonly have numerous hazardous materials in our homes.
Furthermore we actually produce 13 tons of hazardous waste every second? That amounts to over 400 million tons every year. Presently there are over 700 man made chemicals that have been found in the human body that are not supposed to be there.
In this episode I want to talk about common household hazardous wastes, how to handle them and even how to avoid them.
Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E80 which is called Household Hazardous Waste and How to Avoid It.
Once again, I would like to remind everyone that if you would like to contact me with questions, comments or even suggestions about content that you would like to hear about, then please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Repeat
So, let’s get right down to today’s topic. In this episode I want to cover several things.
Topics:
-Define hazardous waste
-Just how much do we produce every year
-What we have to do to manage it and what that costs
-Common household hazardous waste and how to handle it
-What happens with improper disposal.
-How to avoid using hazardous waste.
-Resources to homemade products that are much safer.
You know I distinctly remember once upon a time in a land far far away, life was simple. Our society and culture these days is far more complicated that it needs to be. I ended one of my recent episodes with a quote from Confucius, which was “Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.”
You know at some point we all should start questioning why our lives are so complicated when it can be so simple. We can all start by saying no to all the things that make it so.
A big part of sustainability is respecting the environment in which we live. After all, all that we need to survive, live well, and keep ourselves in good health is connected either directly or indirectly to the natural world. Yet we keep destroying the very thing we need by producing and using chemicals that are harmful to the environment and ourselves.
In fact, there is a rather broad family of over 9,000 chemicals, now being called Forever Chemicals, that have been found in the blood stream of people and animals all over the world. These are chemicals that are man made, meaning that are not naturally occurring. They are called Forever Chemicals because they hardly degrade once they are produced. Furthermore, only about 14% of these chemicals, which are the ones used in the largest volume, even has any sort of minimal data in order to perform some sort of initial safety assessment.
And what we presently know about some of these chemicals is not exactly good news. Some of these are known to cause, DNA damage, hormone imbalances, immune system disorders, reproductive disorders, cancers, as well as many other things.
And this does not take into account the hazardous waste that we produce everyday.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency webpage, hazardous waste is define as waste that has properties that make it dangerous or capable of having a harmful effect on human health or the environment. And we produce 13 tons of hazardous waste every second, which adds up to over 400 million tons annually.
But there are ways to mitigate some of this. Recycling and various processing methods can recover some of the waste which can then be reused in manufacturing processes. In addition to that, there are numerous other efforts taken to manage the hazardous waste that we produce. There are containers, tanks, drip pads, containment buildings, incinerators, boilers, industrial furnaces, landfills, surface impoundments, waste piles, land treatment units, injection wells, underground mines. And we spend $200 billion annually to manage our waste.
But before all of these recovery and mitigation efforts were in place, sometimes we just did nothing about it at all. For example, the second largest man made reservoir in the United States, Lake Powell, actually covers up the open dumping of 26,000 tons of unmediated uranium tailings. And this is because it used to be common practice to dump the material in the open
Now while you may listen to this episode and only think of some steaming pile of hazardous waste in some far corner of the country just waiting to spawn another Godzilla, all you really have to do to find hazardous waste is to look in your kitchen cabinet, garage, or storage shed to find common household hazardous waste. In fact, Americans produce 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste every year.
So where does all of this come from?
Examples of household hazardous waste
-Paint and paint thinners
-Motor oil
-Batteries from your car, cell phone, and other standard household batteries
-Pesticides and other garden chemicals
-Insecticides and rodent poisons
-Kerosene and gasoline
-Cleaning and polishing chemicals
-Old electronic equipment including computers
-Swimming pool and spa chemicals
-Thermometers, barometers, thermostats, fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent light bulbs
-Old unused pharmaceuticals
-Paint stripper
-Ammonia based cleaners
-Kitchen and bathroom cleaners
-Floor cleaners
-Chlorine bleach
And believe it or not, all of these items are on the list of things that are considered difficult to dispose of.
Common Safety Practices
But, since we all seems to have these types of things in our household, let’s just talk briefly about some common safety practices.
-Keep these types of things in a cool, dry place
-Keep liquids in their original containers
-Leave the labels on everything. These labels contain important safety and even first aid information
-Do not mix chemicals together. Sometimes this can result is producing deadly gases
-Keep things out of reach of children.
Proper Disposal
Now if you have things to get rid of, make sure that you dispose of them properly.
-Computers: Old computers and laptops contain many materials that can be recycled. Many manufacturers have buy back program.
-Cell phones often contain heavy metals. Check with your local retailer for proper disposal
-Household batteries can sometimes be mailed in for disposal.
-Car batteries can be disposed of at automotive shops and car parts retailers
-Used motor oil can be disposed of at the local mechanic shop
-Unused medications shop be taken to your local pharmacy
-And if you have household cleaners or other chemicals to get rid of, then consider passing them along to someone else that can use them instead of throwing them away.
-Ultimately, if needed you can even consult the Environmental Protection Agency website for licensed companies that receive certain types of waste
Improper Disposal
Now the other side of this issue is improper disposal. What happens if you do not disposed of these things properly. Well you have to consider that anything you pour onto the ground has the potential of ending up in the ground water, even very small amounts. For example, the amount of pesticides you use on your lawn may not be that much. But when and entire community does the same thing, a substantial amount of that can end up in local lakes, streams, rivers, and eventually the ocean.
So, you can’t really bury things either or just pour things down the drain. It has the same end results. Placing these chemicals in the regular garbage has the same effect because it goes to the landfill.
With all this being said, the question then becomes how to avoid this problem to begin with. By far, industry and agriculture produce the largest proportion of the hazardous waste. However, even a community of 50,000 people can produce 40 tons of hazardous waste each year. Consequently, it is very important to do your part to reduce your waste production.
-Your first step is to purchase only what you need. If you only need a quart of paint then don’t buy a gallon.
-When you do purchase products, use all of it. If you cannot use it all, then give it to someone who can.
-Always recycle as much as you can
-Instead of using toxic household cleaners, make some of your own. For example, vinegar and water can be used as a window cleaner instead of a commercial brand.
-And of course, always dispose of things properly
-Instead of purchasing a separate cleaning product for one particular chore, then purchase something that can be used for multiple different things.
-Use mineral or water based paints
-Weed by hand instead of using pesticides
-Use homemade insecticides instead of purchasing something
-Even common household cleaners can now easily be found in eco-friendly versions. Something as simply as using water and lemon juice to clean your house
Also, I have provided links to several resources in the transcript of this episode. Links to resources on how to make laundry detergent, insecticides, and cleaning products and solutions. All of these are far more environmentally friendly than purchasing commercially products.
Now as I am wrapping up this episode, there is one thing I want you to keep in mind. Something as simple as throwing a used battery in the trash, which I am sure many of us have done, can have significant implications. Most batteries contain sulfuric acid, lead, and lithium that can leak into the environment. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries in electronics can leach thallium, lead, and chromium into the environment. In 2018, there was a study published that attributed 18% of cardiovascular deaths to high concentrations of lead.
So what I discussed so far is
-Define hazardous waste
-Just how much do we produce every year
-What we have to do to manage it and what that costs
-Common household hazardous waste and how to handle it
-What happens with improper disposal.
-How to avoid using hazardous waste.
-Resources to homemade products that are much safer.
I do find it interesting that the earliest cleaning product was simply water. As things evolved, soaps and cleaning products were made of ashes mixed with animal or plant fats plus some oil. Believe it or not, early in human history, soaps were a thing only for those that had money. But we can certainly look at our history and see how uncleanliness resulted in rampant disease and epidemics. Soap chemistry was studied and improved in the middle to late 1800s. From that we have now grown into a plethora of cleaning products and chemicals for just about anything you can imagine.
But the things is, most of it is completely unnecessary. We are all once again the victims of clever advertising and marketing. Most of the hazardous chemicals you know have in your home can easily be replaced with homemade environmentally friendly substances that can be rinsed down the drain with no consequences.
So, the next time you go to purchase a product, think about those 9,000 forever chemicals that are in the environment that are never going away. Think about the fact that only 14% of the chemicals we commonly use have any sort of minimal safety data. Then remember that there are many environmentally friendly products that you can make at home simply using baking soda, vinegar, water, lemon juice, essential oils, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, as well as other simple ingredients that are environmentally friendly and will help to reduce your waste production. And just remember that the greenest waste is the waste you never produce.
I truly hope that this episode has been informative. And if you do enjoy my podcast then please take the time to leave me with a review and don’t forget to subscribe to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast as well as my companion blog Off Grid Living News. Additionally, if you have questions, comments, or even suggestions about a topic you would love to hear about, then feel free to contact me at [email protected].
So, in closing I want to leave you with one last thought. The famous Jacques Cousteau once said that “Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”
With that said, we all have to remember that we do not have to sacrifice a strong economy in order to have a healthy environment. A true conservationist is a person who knows that the world is not given by his father, but borrowed from his children.
This is your host Patrick signing off until next week. Always remember to live sustainably because this is now we build a better future.
Resources
21 Amazing Homemade Cleaning Products That Work
10 All Natural Homemade Cleaning Solutions
How to Make Your Own Laundry Detergent
Managing Hazardous Waste in Your Home, Downloadable PDF
Patrick
