The Centre County Recycling & Refuse Authority’s annual two-day household hazardous waste collection event collected more than 57,000 pounds of material this weekend at the authority’s headquarters on Transfer Road.
Residents from 1,254 households in 33 of the county’s 35 municipalities, as well as from seven surrounding counties, brought waste to the collection on Friday and Saturday.
Throughout the day on Friday and Saturday, CCRRA collected household chemicals such as Insecticides, weed killers, pool chemicals, cleaners, poisons, corrosives, flammables and oil-based paints, as well as CFL bulbs fluorescent tubes.
A total of 1,163 brought household hazardous waste to the collection.
“In spite of inclement weather and tornado watches, residents were patient and really showed how much they care about keeping Centre County a safe place to live,’ said Joanne Shafer, CCRRA deputy executive director and recycling coordinator. ‘We even collected enough fluorescent tubes to stretch 3 miles when placed end to end.”
Volunteers from Penn State Environmental Health and Safety and the State College Area High School were assisted in checking vehicles, and a group of 6th grade students from Nittany Valley Charter School got a learning experience by stopping in to check out the operation.
CCRA co-sponsored the collection with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Department of Agriculture. MXI of Langhorne was the contractor for the hazardous waste recycling.
Disposal costs of the collected 57,000 pounds will be split among the Household Hazardous Waste Fund, DEP, and CHEMSWEEP, the state’s pesticide disposal program.
The next household hazardous waste collection event will be held in the spring of 2020.
