doing the right thing

Everyone pretty much knows that it’s not legal to put batteries or fluorescent lights in the household trash. But municipalities don’t always make it easy to dispose of such things. In Gilroy we could put batteries in ziplock bags and place them on the top of our recycle toter. There wasn’t a good solution for fluorescent lights that I recall.

Here in Hemet the options are minimal. The waste disposal company will provide a box for household hazardous waste for some outrageous fee. Other than that there are periodic household hazardous waste disposal events at the landfill in the canyon between the San Jacinto Valley and Beaumont, at the other side of the pass.

So on a recent Saturday we packed up three years worth of household hazardous waste and headed off to the landfill. I was intimidated by the line of vehicles and all the trucks, but the staff there provided us with a shortcut and we quickly dropped off all those batteries and fluorescent lights. Easy enough.

I suppose most people just toss that stuff in the trash despite the fact that it’s not legal. Terry and I, however, do try to do the Right Thing whenever possible.