Residents disposed many hazardous materials - including propane cylinders, car batteries, gasoline and cell phones - last Saturday.
City officials hosted the second Household Hazardous Waste Drop Off Day in Athens, where residents disposed of various hazardous materials for free.
The event took place in the Community Center parking lot, where residents drove their cars through an inventory line of collectors, who loaded the items into trucks for transportation. The collectors were from Environmental Enterprises Inc. (EEI), a company specializing in industrial and hazardous waste management.
Accepted items included flammable liquids, batteries and electronics, such as cell phones and computers.
This was the second hazardous waste drop off day Athens hosted, after first collecting materials in November of 2007.
It's a service for the community. It helps clean out these thing from peoples homes
it makes the homes safer it makes the community safer it keeps the items out of the landfills ... it also helps us reuse the materials
said Michael Gosnell, the Athens solid waste control officer.
Gosnell added that of the 19,000 pounds of material collected in 2007, about 18,000 pounds were recycled. He assumed there would be a similar ratio for this year.
EEI estimated that it collected 20,000 pounds of hazardous material Saturday, he said.
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Dan Quarfoot
