When New York City decided to develop ways for residents to dispose of harmful household products safely, they turned to Veolia. Five locations are open, one in each borough, where residents can drop off designated harmful household products. Veolia also stages collection events in all five boroughs every year for the same purpose.
PERMANENT COLLECTION LOCATIONS
The NYC Department of Sanitation runs five Household Special Waste Drop-Off Sites across the city. The drop-off sites are located at a New York City Department of Sanitation garage or maintenance facility in all five boroughs. “Two or three dozen people show up at each location every week to drop off their waste,” says Rich Johnsen, Veolia's program manager for the project. “We send a truck and a crew once every other month and take out 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of material.” For a list of accepted materials, hours, and locations, visit nyc.gov/safedisposal.
ANNUAL COLLECTION EVENTS
Every year, the NYC Department of Sanitation holds a series of events to collect harmful household products from city residents. Since the events began in 2012, Veolia has helped the NYC Department of Sanitation collect and properly dispose of materials such as automotive fluids, pesticides, strong cleaners, batteries, mercury-containing products, and paint. The New York City Department of Sanitation Environmental Police Unit handles medication and DEA controlled substances. Electronics are managed free of charge by Electronics Recyclers International (ERI) under the NYS electronics recycling law. More information about the NYC SAFE (Solvents, Automotive, Flammables, Electronics) Disposal events can be found at nyc.gov/safedisposal.
RESULTS
An average of 400,000 pounds of harmful household products (excluding electronics) are collected each year by Veolia at NYC’s collection events. The majority of the material is recycled or blended for fuel. A small percentage is incinerated. Bimonthly volumes at the special waste sites total 20,000 to 30,000 pounds.