Women love their nail polish and hair relaxers, dyes, sprays, and permanents. Men love painting or fixing their cars. Gardeners and cleaning ladies need cleaners and garden care products to do their jobs. In daily life, for jobs or pleasure, people use hazardous household products. When no longer usable or wanted, these household products become hazardous wastes. When disposed improperly, these pose a threat to the health of our environment and the organisms living in it.

Many problems are caused by household hazardous wastes. If they are left in your house, accidental poisoning with children can occur, or it can also occur when handled with food, drink, or cigarettes. When you place one of these hazardous wastes in the trash, they make it to the landfill, the waste liquids can go into our surface water or groundwater-drinking water. Down the drain these wastes can kill the organisms that make the system work, maybe causing unwanted wastes to come into our groundwater. Sewers can also be ruined by these wastes, therefore releasing chemicals into nearby water. Everyone knows that storm drains go directly to the ocean, not a place for these wastes either. This is a major problem.

All the wrong disposal ways listed above make this seem hopeless, but it is not. Most everyone has heard the three R's: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. You can use these for hazardous wastes, too! All household hazardous wastes have labels containing words such as: caustic, corrosive, danger, explosive, flammable, poison, toxic, volatile, or warning. Avoid purchasing these products. In libraries, you can find books with recipes for safer alternatives, and safer alternative products can be found in stores. If you need to use a certain product, make sure to only buy the amount you need and use the directed amount. In these ways you can reduce your household hazardous wastes. Some products, such as paint thinner and paintbrush cleaner can be reused. These wastes can also be recycled. Contact your solid waste officials for recycling locations in your area!

When the three R's cannot be used, there is another option. Keep the product in its original and labeled container and wait for a collection. A collection site is a place where people can come and dispose of their household hazardous wastes. With reducing, reusing, recycling, or giving your hazardous wastes to a collection site, the environment will be better protected.

Household hazardous waste management is a problem, but not one without a solution. Just think, if everyone were to dispose of household hazardous wastes properly, and reduce and reuse to minimize trash volume, there wouldn't be a problem. Use the three R's and collection sites to take care of our health and our environment.