If something you wish to dispose of can’t go in the recycling cart or the yard trimmings pile, are you likely to put it in the garbage? If it can fit in the cart, many people say yes. But yes might not be the right answer.

Among the common items that DO belong in your garbage cart for weekly collection are:

The following items DO NOT belong there and require special handling (see sidebar).

• Fluorescent Bulbs
  Fluorescent bulbs, which have become very popular, contain toxic gas and can’t legally be placed in a garbage or recycling cart. Only old-school incandescent bulbs can go in the garbage cart. No type of light bulb may go in the recycling cart.

• Electronic Waste
  It is illegal to put batteries, certain electronic devices (televisions, computer monitors, radios, phones, microwaves, space heaters, etc), and any mercury-containing devise (like pilot light sensors, certain gauges & thermometers, musical greeting cards, light-up shoes, and aerosol cans still containing toxic or flammable propellant) in the trash or recycling. These items are considered Universal Waste.

• Medications
  Historically, people have flushed unwanted pills and syrups down the drain or placed them in the garbage. Both of these actions have potentially bad repercussions when it comes to the environment and public health/safety.  Disposal via the sink or toilet transports your medication into the sewage system and eventually to a local water treatment facility that is not designed to filter out things like antidepressants and hormones.  And items thrown in the trash can be uncovered and eaten by people or animals. We therefore recommend taking expired or otherwise unused/unwanted medications back to where you got them. Pharmacies, hospitals, medical offices and drug stores are not yet required to take them back but often have disposal events and programs anyway. When you purchase medications or prescriptions, inquire to see what your pharmacy can offer or recommend.

• Needles
  Currently, sharps (needle syringes, lancets, etc.) can go in the garbage and be land filled but we don’t recommend it because there is just no fail-safe way to insure that garbage handlers, landfill workers, and random scavengers (human or animal) will come in contact with them. Plus, in September of 2008 new legislation will go into effect prohibiting sharps from being placed in any garbage or recycling cart-- they will have to be disposed of at a hazardous or medical waste collection facility that will dispose of them properly.
  
  

When you need to dispose of one of the many hazardous items mentioned above (or in the related article published in the Fall edition of the City’s Curbside Courier) please do so properly. Putting dangerous materials in your garbage or recycling cart can have serious repercussions, risking injury to garbage and recycling handlers as well as to the general public.