Household Hazardous Waste Sites Proposed

In an attempt to make the city’s hazardous household waste disposal service more accessible to residents, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon has proposed establishing a series of permanent collection sites around the city.

The collection centers would not serve as dumping grounds, but instead would be places where residents could legally dispose of unwanted paint, motor oil, pesticides and other household chemicals, Alarcon said at a meeting of the council’s Environmental Quality and Waste Management Committee.

“If we could establish a permanent site, people would get more comfortable with the idea of cleaning out their garages and disposing of the stuff more responsibly,” Alarcon said.

Alarcon named the Department of Water and Power’s Generating Station in Sun Valley as a possible Valley site.

“You have to be careful where you locate these centers,” Alarcon acknowledged.

“The best place would be an industrial location, far away from residents.”

The county, with the city’s participation, currently operates a mobile household hazardous-waste collection program that spends roughly two weeks at a time in as many as 26 different neighborhoods every year, said Drew Sones, who oversees hazardous-waste collection for the Bureau of Sanitation.

“The program has been very successful. We’ve picked up over 2 million gallons of household hazardous waste, and most of that has been recycled,” Sones said.

“I think a permanent location would add to our program. It wouldn’t cost a lot to put in.”

However, even if the plan is approved by the council, Somes said, the collection centers would still be a long way off because of the lengthy state permitting process.