How to Recycle Hazardous Waste in Raleigh

Useful household items such as fluorescent light bulbs, mercury thermometers and paint thinner become caustic when spilled, broken or dumped in a landfill. Chemicals seep into the ground and contaminate the water table. Raleigh, North Carolina, encourages residents to deposit corrosive, explosive and hazardous waste at two facilities in Lake County. The North Wake Solid Waste Management Facility is at 9037 Deponie Drive, and the South Wake Solid Waste Management Facility is at 6130 Old Smithfield Road. As of 2010, both facilities accept materials from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Instructions

• 1

  Food and paper waste are not accepted at the facilities.

  Sort through your discards. The hazardous waste centers do not accept household trash, such as food waste, and recyclable items, such as paper or plastic bottles. Send regular trash to the curb on garbage day. Place newspapers in a recycling bin or save them for your school's paper drive. Redeem returnable cans at the grocery store.

• 2

  Send oil-based paints to the hazardous waste center.

  Inspect paint cans. Seal containers of oil-based paints to take to the hazardous waste facility. Do not take latex paint to the facility, because it does not qualify as toxic waste. Donate full cans to the Wake Habitat for Humanity ReStore (see Resources). Open cans with a small puddle of paint and use the paint for touch-ups. When finished, leave the lid off to dry up the paint. Dispose of the dried paint can in the trash.

• 3

  Gather used automotive fluid, such as used oil from home oil changes, or brake fluid, and pour them into plastic containers if they have been drained into pans.

• 4

  Fluorescent bulbs are toxic when broken.

  Place non-working fluorescent bulbs in a sealed plastic container or a glass jar. Put them on the car seat so they do not collide with other waste and shatter. Fluorescent bulbs are toxic when broken. Plastic or glass can contain mercury.

• 5

  Load the car with the hazardous household items to transport them to the North or South Wake Solid Waste Management Facility.