Everyday we buy, use, and throw away many products which contain small amounts of hazardous chemicals. Why are they hazardous? Because they are a risk to you, your family, flatmates and pets, waste collectors and the environment. Hazardous waste can be corrosive, toxic, flammable or reactive. Here are just some of the products which generate hazardous household waste:

batteries, gas cylinders, toilet cleaners, fluorescent light fittings, oil, grease, car care chemicals, solvents, paint stripper, lacquers and paints, swimming pool chemicals, some air fresheners, hair dyes, fabric cleaners, pesticides, herbicides and the packaging that these products come in.

When we buy these products we create a demand for the hazardous chemicals they contain. When we throw these products 'away', the dangers are simply taken elsewhere as small volumes of hazardous materials are mixed with the rest of our waste and taken to landfill. But that's not the end of their journey. In landfill, they can seep out as gases and liquid leachate, posing health and environmental risks to local communities, our children and their children. If hazardous household liquids are poured down the drain, they kill the bugs needed for sewage treatment and pollute our waterways.

The US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) estimates an average household disposes of about half a kilogram of hazardous waste per year; Australia would be similar. This may not seem like much, but it all adds up and even a small amount can do damage. For how much longer can we afford to waste hazardous household products?

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

PREVENTION
At Friends Of the Earth, we question whether there is such a thing as 'safe' or 'efficient' disposal of hazardous waste. Prevention is preferred. The Recycling Council of Ontario, Canada has established a '3H' program, which complements the '3Rs' -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

The 3H PROGRAM

HALT	do you really need it? Is there a non-hazardous alternative?
HEED	heed warnings and labels.
HANDLE	take it to a depot for recycling and safe disposal.

SOME TIPS FOR  HALTING AND HEEDING

Buy only as much as you need. Buy non-hazardous or less hazardous if possible.
Use only for the intended purpose and don't overuse. It's estimated that only one per cent of the pesticides produced actually reach their targeted pest.
Don't mix hazardous products. Keep them in their correct container.
Don't tip them down the sewer.
Read and use according to the labels. Be aware of the hazards. Avoid eye and skin contact.

HANDLING HOUSEHOLD  HAZARDOUS WASTE

In the Netherlands, all products with hazardous chemicals are labelled with a cross through the bin logo. This lets us know that these products should be treated differently from the rest of your garbage. But does this encourage prevention? And how should these wastes be treated? Collecting small volumes of household hazardous goods can be quite expensive, especially for local councils. Who should pay?

EXTENDING PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY
To solve some of these issues, Canadian provincial governments are looking to product stewardship -- where producers are responsible for managing household hazardous wastes. A combination of regulations, voluntary initiatives and industry funded programs are being used to shift the burden of responsibility to industry whilst giving different roles to retailers, consumers and government.

The Recycling Council of British Colombia (RCBC) has quite a history of product stewardship. In 1992, used oil was targeted. In 1994 a paint care association ran a pilot collection with retailers, establishing a return to retailer scheme where brand owners established sites to drop off unwanted left over paints. A major hardware chain has since joined the scheme.

In 1996, pharmaceutical companies volunteered to establish a collection program for unwanted medicines and pharmaceuticals. Now the RCBC requires industry operated collection depots for solvents, pesticides, turps, paint thinners, lacquers, polishes, paint strippers, varsol, camp fuels and unused petrol. An 'eco fee' of 40 to 60 cents per litre is added to the price of these products to offset the costs, and there are fines for manufacturers who don't participate.

A similar scheme is in place in Minnesota in the US. Companies who register a pesticide for distribution and use are financially responsible for the collection costs of waste pesticides. An annual fee is paid, which depends on the volumes of pesticides sold.

These initiatives might just help us keep household hazardous materials out of ordinary landfill. But this is only the start of the story -- we need to shift responsibility so that avoidance, reuse and recycling are more feasible and attractive. Consider used oils.

 Case study 1: used oils
One litre of used motor oil can contain cadmium, lead, benzene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Just one ounce tipped down the drain can create an oil slick big enough to cover four average household blocks. Landfill is not a sustainable option. Neither is incineration -- the additives in the oil give off toxic emissions when burnt. What can we do with it?

We can practice sufficiency, by catching a train or cycling instead of driving. Or be eco-efficient and support renewable energy such as solar or wind power. But this may not work for everyone all the time, so we are still likely to end up with waste oil.

One option is to re-refine used oil. Re-refining generally only uses one third of the energy that refining from crude oil does. And you need about 67 litres of crude oil, compared with 1.6L of used oil, to make 1L of lubricating oil. Reuse also minimises the impacts from the exploration and extraction phase of the oil life cycle.

For re-refining to work, used oil needs to be collected separately from the rest of our garbage so that the hazardous waste is stored and transported properly, and is kept contaminant free. Collection also needs to be user-friendly and cost-effective. EPR is a key reform for unmaking used oil waste.

Canadian States give us some working examples. In British Columbia, every motor oil and oil filter retailer must have a return facility to accept used oils at no charge or employ local contractors to do so. Last year in Kings County, a takeback network enabled 30,000 customers to divert 1300 tonnes of waste oil from landfill. Two thirds of the oil collected was taken back to autoparts stores or petrol stations. About 7 percent of customers took back to mobile collection vehicles. Special collection days in 22 cities were visited by 13,000 customers, collecting almost 300 tonnes of waste oil.

WHO PAYS? USER PAYS
But what's going to stop the lazier amongst us from throwing household hazardous materials into the most convenient garbage bin? A key tool that producers and state government can use is deposit legislation or a 'point of sale levy'. In Minnesota, you pay a $5 deposit on a new car battery. When you take back the spent battery to a participating retail outlet you retrieve your deposit. It's a smart way to get customers to keep coming back!

 Case study 2: Chemical
Strategies Partnerships
DOING BUSINESS BY PREVENTING WASTE
AND PROVIDING SERVICES
The Tellus Institute has been trying to find out if chemical companies can profit by selling fewer chemicals while their customers reduce their chemical use.

Three manufacturing companies redefined their relationship with their chemical supplier so that pollution prevention was the supplier's business objective. Contracts were rewritten so that chemical suppliers were given financial incentives to help decrease chemical use and associated costs.

The exercise depended on manufacturers being able to do their accounts in a different way, restructure their contracts and use performance-based incentives for their suppliers.

In one case, a supplier who originally sold cleaning chemicals to a circuit board manufacturer took over the whole cleaning operation -- shifting from a product to a service -- and creating an opportunity for local business along the way.

 Case study 3: Dry cleaners
Dry cleaners use a solvent called PERC (or tetrachloroethylene) to clean your clothes. PERC generates hazardous waste -- so it's expensive for small dry cleaning businesses to manage. Recently, Environment Canada proposed that distributors who sell PERC to dry cleaners should be responsible for collecting PERC contaminated wastes. This would improve how PERC wastes are recycled and avoid improper disposal practices. Dry cleaners pay a levy to fund the scheme. This also encourages cost-effective use of the solvent. A three per cent increase in costs will be passed on to consumers. Other measures favoured by local environmentalists include upgrading the technology from dry cleaning to wet cleaning, as much of the PERC enters the environment via air emissions.

WHAT CAN I DO?
Contact your local council or the NSW Waste Service and ask them how they can handle your unwanted household hazardous waste. Better still, ask them about producer responsibility. You might like to write directly to the retailer or manufacturer.
Contact Friends Of the Earth, Sydney ph: 02 9283 2004 fax: 02 9283 2005. Download sample letters soon to appear on this website.
For info on alternative products contact the Total Environment Centre Toxic Chemicals Committee ph: 02 9247 4714 fax: 02 9247 8476 Cumberland Street, The Rocks, 2000
For alternative pest control advice for your home, contact Systems Pest Control ph: 02 9564 1614

FURTHER READING
WEBSITE at www.concentric.net/~armweb/producer.html lists Product Stewardship programs in the US and links to statutes.
Recycling Council of Ontario and Recycling Council of British Columbia at www.rco.on.ca and www.rcbc.bc.ca
Tellus Institute ORGANISATION at www.tellus.org
Inform ORGANISATION at www.informinc.org/fact.html has online factsheets which list the toxins in everyday products and their chemical effects.

THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN ASSISTED BY THE NEW SOUTH WALES GOVERNMENT THROUGH ITS WASTE PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT FUND'S WASTE REDUCTION PROGRAM. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS MATERIAL DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE POLICIES OF THE NSW GOVERNMENT.