AUGUSTA — The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry’s Board of Pesticides Control will team up with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection during October to help Mainers dispose of unusable and waste pesticides.
The Obsolete Pesticides Collection Program, funded through pesticide product registration fees, has kept more than 99 tons of pesticides out of the waste stream since its start in 1982.
The free annual program is open to homeowners, family-owned farms and greenhouses. Collections will occur at four sites: Presque Isle, Bangor, Augusta and Portland. Participants must preregister by Friday, Sept. 29, and drop-ins are not permitted. The collected chemicals will be taken to out-of-state disposal facilities licensed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, where they will be incinerated or reprocessed.
Pesticides may become unusable due to age, freezing or evaporation or because their legal registration changes. The term “pesticides” includes not only insecticides, but also herbicides, fungicides and rodenticides.
FMI, register: 207-287-2731, thinkfirstspraylast.org, maine.gov/dep.
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