Prevent Fires: Keep Household Hazardous Waste Out of the Landfill

If you are doing some clean-up around your home and yard, ensure that you are doing it safely and disposing of household hazardous waste properly. Old chemicals, cleaners or other hazardous products don’t belong in the garbage, where they can create serious problems and potentially spark landfill fires. While most of these fires are quickly contained by staff, there’s always potential for a fire to grow to an unmanageable level, especially in the dry summer and early fall, before winter rains arrive.

In the capital region, the majority of landfill fires are caused by these items:

Household batteries – These contain heavy metals like lead, cadmium, zinc, manganese and lithium that can be re-used if they’re recycled properly. Drop your batteries off for free at one of more than 50 locations across the region that collect these items for recycling – visit Call2Recycle.ca to find the location nearest you.

Household electronics – Electronics that contain most of these batteries are also easily recyclable – both at the Hartland Landfill recycling depot and at various other community sites.

Hot tub and pool chemicals – The only safe place for pool chemicals is in your pool or hot tub. Unused or expired chemicals can be dropped off at Hartland Landfill for free, keeping them out of the landfill and away from potential fire sources.

If you have an item that you are unsure of, simply bring it to the Hartland public drop-off where staff have experience safely identifying and dealing with potentially hazardous items.

To learn where you can drop off these items and many others, visit www.myrecyclopedia.ca. To learn more about household hazardous waste visit crd.bc.ca/hhw.