Athens residents take advantage of hazardous waste collection day

article by Kristin Heinichen
Athens Messengers Staff Writer

More than 300 Athens residents took advantage of an opportunity Saturday to dispose of their household hazardous waste by participating in the first such collection in the city in more than 10 years.

The Athens Community Center parking lot served as a drop-off location where people could get rid of old paint, batteries and other items.

“There’s a lot of stuff out there — you can’t start your barbecue with it — and the question is how to get rid of it,” said Mayor-elect Paul Wiehl, chairman of City Council’s Environment Committee. “It is quite obvious there is a need (for proper disposal).”

Hired to dispose of the materials was Environmental Enterprises Inc., a company out of Cincinnati specializing in industrial and hazardous waste management.

Wiehl dropped off gasoline, old paint and one tire at the event. “The tire was sitting in back of my garage. I’m trying to remember what car it even belonged to,” he said with a chuckle.

The city entered into contract for the collection day with the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District. When contacted by the city, the district had already established its 2007 budget and was unable to shoulder the cost of the project. City officials appropriated $15,000 for the collection.

Taking advantage of the event was Athens resident Bernhard Debatin and his neighbor, Bob Klein. Both have collected many years worth of household hazardous items — predominantly batteries from flashlights and children’s toys.

“Batteries are a big problem in Athens — they are one of the most toxic things on earth,” Debatin said, explaining that the two have been lobbying the city to institute used battery drop-off locations.

Debatin is from Germany, which he said has an “amazing recycling program.”

“Our landfills are not filling up as fast or with toxins (as the United States),” he said. “I think Athens has one of the best recycling programs in Ohio, but it still has its problems.”

Debatin said Germany places the responsibility on the vendor instead of the buyer. If companies want their product to hit the shelves, it must be packaged in recyclable containers, he explained.

“It’s not certified unless the packaging materials are recyclable,” Debatin said. “Every store that sell batteries has to have a container to drop off batteries.”

Employees of Environmental Enterprises Inc. separated thousands of pounds of toxins, flammables and corrosives into big barrel drums on Saturday.

“We recycle as much as we can of the materials we receive, but some doesn’t lend itself to recycling. We dispose of those materials by incineration at our treatment facility,” said Dan McCabe, president of Environmental Enterprises Inc.

Headquartered in Cincinnati, the company serves 15 counties in Ohio and serves four other states. McCabe explained that the volume of toxic waste just his company undertakes is mind-boggling.

“We might get over 5 million pounds of household and industrial waste yearly,” he said. “It’s necessary for these types of events because it’s difficult for people to get rid of it (toxic materials). If it is disposed in the environment, it would be detrimental to it. It would simply ruin the watercourses.”

Michael Gosnell is the solid waste control officer for the city.

“Athens has great natural resources all around it, such as the Hocking River and the woodlands — the Hocking River and the aquifer is our drinking source,” Gosnell emphasized. “Safety-wise — in case of a fire — this collection gets things that are dangerous out of people’s houses. Environmentally, it keeps it from leaking out of houses and puts it into a safer waste system where it gets recycled or disposed of properly. And it keeps it out of municipal landfill, too.”

(photo by Duane Bogart of ReUse Industries)

This article appeared in the Monday, November 12, 2007 edition of the Athens Messenger.