Disposal delayed — Costs hamper hazardous waste day
The Weston County Natural Resource District has postponed its 2025 Hazardous Waste Day after receiving a cost estimate that was far outside its budget, according to Erin Darlington-Whitcher, office administrator for the district.
Darlington-Whitcher told the News Letter Journal that the environmental service contractor the district had been using for the event, Veolia, was a no-call, no-show last year. She said the company was “very blasé” about the situation when the district called to find out why.
“So, we’ve been trying to find a different contractor,” Darlington-Whitcher said. “We thought we had one lined up since last October, but they were very slow to get us a quote for collection and didn’t get that back to us until last Friday. The quote was for two to five times what we usually pay, so obviously that was way outside what we had budgeted for the cost of the collection day.”
Without a contractor, she said, the district is “hoping to pivot to do something closer to what Campbell County does, which is collect hazardous waste stuff in a trailer at their landfill and have a contractor come haul it off when it gets full. If the solid waste district isn’t willing to work with us on setting something like that up, we’ll probably try to host a collection day but really limit what is accepted.”
Unfortunately, after meeting with the district, Darlington-Whitcher reported that the solid waste district is unable to collect the hazardous waste because doing so would require permitting through the Environmental Protection Agency. She said that this is a very costly, long and difficult process, based on the solid waste district experience establishing the new landfill.
“So, that plan clearly isn’t going to work, and our best bet is to continue to try to do a collection event,” Darlington-Whitcher said, noting that the solid waste district board tentatively agreed to provide some funding to help support hazardous waste day, although no specific amount was given.
“The plan from here is for us to also go to the city councils for Newcastle and Upton to ask for financial assistance. We are also going to try to go back to our previous contractor, Veolia (though probably through a different branch than the one that ghosted us last year), since their rates were much lower than the company we used before Veolia (Clean Harbors), and the company we got the new quote from (GrayMar),” she said.
Depending on the additional financial assistance the district receives and the new quote, Darlington-Whitcher said, potential changes the district is considering include charging people to drop off waste, limiting the type of waste collected, finding grant monies and finding another county to co-host the event.
She also indicated that arming the public with better information about the landfill and hazardous waste could be part of the solution.
“Another thing we identified that could help to reduce people’s need for HWD is better communication from the landfill about what is and isn’t accepted at the new landfill,” she said, noting that the main issue seems to revolve around paint.
Despite claims from members of the public, Darlington-Whitcher said the new county landfill does accept paint as long as it is dry. She said that people are unnecessarily storing paint and bringing it to Hazardous Waste Day, and the district pays for disposal, which is also unnecessary.
Other items accepted by the solid waste district that people tend to store and bring to Hazardous Waste Day include car batteries, motor oil and electronics, she said, noting that a definitive list from the district would be helpful in directing the community on disposal.
“When the city owned the landfill, the web page for it had a list, but the current website – last I checked – does not, so a partial solution to this particular issue might be as simple as publishing an “acceptable/unacceptable items” list on the county’s landfill info page and sharing it around on social media,” Darlington-Whitcher said.