June hazardous waste round-up and year-round paint disposal

Submitted by San Juan County.

Hazardous waste should always be brought in for free at any county collection event. It’s both safe and easy to do! Safe hazardous waste disposal is mutually critical for our human health as well as the environment.

San Juan County’s Hazardous Waste Round-Up dates vary by island. Lopez Island’s event is from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on June 26. Take waste to The Dump, located at 2419 Fisherman Bay Road.

If you ever have a question about if an item is hazardous, please either consult the poster below, call your island waste station, or you can email our Environmental Resources Division’s Solid Waste Program at solidwaste@sanjuanco.com.

New for this year we have created a color flyer to help you easily identify certified green products that are non-hazardous and much safer for you, your family, pets, yard, and wildlife.

Did you know that purchasing certified green products will usually save you money over the life of the product and they are always easier to safely dispose? Did you know that hazardous waste collection costs our county over $70,000 every year!

Hazardous products may look cheap on the shelf, but they will most certainly cost you and your community more in the long run. Find the ”Shop Safer” flyer at sanjuanco.com/DocumentCenter/View/23197/Shop-Safer—-Alternatives-to-HHW.

Also new this year is the “Washington Paint Bill,” or “PaintCare® WA Program.” The program went live in San Juan County on April 1 (no joke)! This is a truly great and exciting program for our county since paint products amass around 40% of the hazardous waste materials we collect as well as the related disposal costs. Perhaps even better than the cost savings is the convenience of now being able to bring in any accepted PaintCare® products for free year-round! Our local PaintCare locations are found at paintcare.org/drop-off-sites and a list of accepted PaintCare® products are listed here paintcare.org/wp-content/uploads/docs/xx-program-products-list.pdf. How does PaintCare® work? Essentially every new PaintCare® product has a small recycling fee attached to it at the time of sale. This relatively unnoticed recovery fee then allows for all leftover PaintCare® products to be taken back for recycling, or even direct reuse back out in the community! For more questions please contact your local waste station or solidwaste@sanjuanco.org.

Here is where you can already dispose/recycle your PaintCare® products year-round, for free:

• Ace Hardware – Friday Harbor, 340 Argyle Ave., acehardware.com/store-details/15101.

• Lopez Solid Waste Disposal District, 2419 Fisherman Bay Road, lopezsolidwaste.org.

• Orcas Recycling Services, 3398 Orcas Road, exchangeorcas.org.

For a full list of the freely accepted PaintCare® products please visit paintcare.org/wp-content/uploads/docs/xx-program-products-list.pdf.