Norway/Paris Solid Waste will hold their annual Household Hazardous Waste collection event on from 8:30-11:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 10. All those household chemicals that have been sitting under kitchen sinks or in basements and garages for many years can be brought to the event at the Norway/Paris Transfer Station, 39 Brown Street, Norway.

Residents from the participating towns of Norway, Paris, Buckfield/Sumner, Hartford, Otisfield, Waterford/Albany/Stoneham, and West Paris can dispose of their household hazardous wastes at no cost up to 25 gallons. The event is co-sponsored by Oxford County Regional Recycling and is part of the on-going Western Maine Environmental Depot Collection Program run by Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments and a private, qualified contractor.

Ferg Lea, an environmental engineer at AVCOG, noted, “Hazardous substances such as oil based paints, pesticides and old gasoline can cause significant environmental, health and safety problems if not properly disposed or even if left around the house. Cans can leak, labels can disintegrate, and materials end up being used improperly. And, many of the materials can create a hazard for curious children.”

At this time latex paint is not accepted, but under a new law, the paint manufacturers will be setting up a program to finance the collection and recycling or disposal of paint by 2015. Until then, latex paint should be dried out and put in the regular trash. Oil-based paints, stains and varnishes are accepted at HHW collections.

Residents may also bring their hazardous waste to the Environmental Depot, the permanent facility located at the Lewiston Solid Waste Facility at 424 River Road; it is open from 8 a.m.-noon the first and third Saturdays of each month, except for three-day holiday weekends, May through November.

Other one-day collections in the Western Maine area will be held in the fall. Residents of towns participating in the Environmental Depot HHW collection program can use the Depot or any collection event in their region at no cost. Participating municipalities include most of the towns in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties. Residents from other communities can bring waste to the Depot at a cost of $28 for up to five gallons.

AVCOG operates the program in conjunction with EPI, a licensed hazardous-waste hauler that ships wastes to a variety of out-of-state recycling and disposal locations for proper handling. For more information, visit www.avcog.org, call 207-783-9186, or check with your town office.

Last year, approximately 1,450 gallons were collected at the Norway/Paris event. Also, a record total of 12,340 gallons were collected at the Depot as well as satellite collections. Lea noted that towns participating in the Norway-Paris area collection make up approximately 10 percent of all wastes collected.

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