Disposal/Transfer Station

Good News! Punch cards now available at the Transfer Station (in addition to Town Hall)…just ask the Attendant…

2018 Regional Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events
For dates and pre-registration information click here

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Annual Household Hazardous Waste Event

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2018 

At the Westhampton Highway Department

9 AM – Noon

Protect your Home and the Environment

With

Proper Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Disposal:

The Hilltown Resource Management Cooperative (HRMC) announces their annual Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Event for residents of the ten HRMC member communities of:  Ashfield, Chesterfield, Cummington, Goshen, Huntington, Middlefield, Plainfield, Westhampton, Williamsburg, and Worthington.

PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED (from October 1- 22)

The program is free to HRMC member-Town residents however, Pre-Registration is required.  Please email your name, street and mailing address (including Town and Zip Code), and phone number to

hrmc@hrmc-ma.org.  Or you may phone HRMC with the above information including an email address at 413-685-5498.  Note that Huntington residents are asked to provide their transfer station sticker number at the time of registration.  HRMC will confirm your registration and send a confirmation letter to bring with you to the event.

Protect your home and our environment by properly disposing of old or unwanted household chemicals.  Products containing lead, petroleum products, pesticides, herbicides, and acids should NOT be poured on the ground, down the drain, or placed in household trash. The HRMC Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) collection program accepts a wide range of unwanted household products with labels that indicate that special handling is required.  Examples of common warnings include “caustic, toxic, corrosive, poison, flammable, warning, danger, caution and keep out of reach of children and pets.”

Common Household Hazardous Waste

Safe Home—Healthy Home

We are exposed to harmful chemicals in many ways—including products we use to clean our homes or maintain our gardens. Only a small portion of the more than 80,000 chemicals registered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been thoroughly tested for human health concerns. Many common chemicals found in our homes can have immediate toxic effects on adults, children, and pets if not used properly. Others may have long-term health effects after repeated exposure. Particles from detergents, cosmetics, pesticides, and other chemicals are found in the dust in our homes, potentially contributing to asthma.  Never place any empty plastic container that held hazardous waste into the recycling bin.

We can make our homes safer by changing our purchasing habits, adopting some minor changes to the way we clean our homes or care for our lawns and gardens, and through proper storage, use, and disposal of household chemicals. When considering a chemical product, ask yourself if something else you already have will do the job. There are a wide variety of nontoxic or low-toxic products available.  Common household items such as baking soda, vinegar, and plant-based soaps and detergents can often clean just as well as specialty cleaners.

Mercury-containing products such as thermometers, wall mounted thermostats, fluorescent light bulbs and compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) should never be disposed of in the trash.  These products are accepted at all HRMC town transfer stations (handle carefully and hand to attendant) and are, therefore not included in the HRMC HHW collection event.

Rechargeable, lithium, and button batteries are other common household items that should not be thrown in the trash.  If these batteries are burned in waste combustion facilities or buried in landfills they can release mercury, cadmium or other heavy metals into the environment.

Free battery and cell phone recycling is available to all HRMC member-Towns.  At transfer stations, simply hand them to the transfer station attendant. Reminder that standard household alkaline batteries are not hazardous and can be disposed of with your trash.

For additional recycling information visit the “What To Do With” link on the HRMC website at: www.hrmc-ma.org or call (413) 685-5498