Tips for Household Hazardous Waste Management

Household wastes that contain several corrosive, ignitable, poisonous or reactive ingredients are categorized as Household Hazardous Waste or (HHW). Such types of ingredients are normally found in wastes that include paints and varnishes, cleaners, car batteries and oil, pesticides, broken items including batteries, tube-lights, thermometer etc.

These toxins are harmful to people as well the environment and pose great risk to health, so they should be handled with care and specialized treatments for disposal. HHW cannot be left out in the open or dumped into open water bodies as it can pollute lakes and streams, causing death of aquatic life as well as affecting the ecology around the water body. Burning of these wastes on open ground will release the chemicals into the air and chemicals like cadmium and lead will be left over as residue, while chemicals like sulphur can spread out and affect the people. Burying them without proper treatment will cause them to pollute the soil and infect underground water with toxins. The polluted underground water eventually reaches surface water where it comes into human contact, thus causing harm. Polluted soils cannot be irrigated or cultivated upon fruitfully, and even plants growing on toxic lands cannot be used as they would bear traces of the chemicals.

Proper disposal of Household hazardous waste

Most countries have certain procedures wherein the wastes are treated as per their content and then disposed accordingly. But in third world countries, there is no fixed management for these wastes and the general public is unaware of the hazards of these wastes.

In India, especially in rural areas, there is no facility to properly dispose wastes and they are mostly left lying around or dumped into one area. Some areas are aware of the dangers posed by these HHW, but without the adequate facilities, they are helpless to do the needful.

Some places like Suryapet in Andhra Pradesh and some companies like ITC Bhadrachalam have taken steps to sunder out the toxic wastes from the normal pile up, but there initiatives are at a standstill. They are at a loss as to what to do with the collected wastes since no facility for proper disposal is available.

Presently, what is happening in India is that the household wastes are mixed with municipal solid wastes which are later dumped into landfills and open dumps. These cause further problems to the land and residents of communities living nearby.

How to reduce Household Hazardous Waste?

There are things you can do to reduce the quantity of HHW. For starters, while buying products, check whether they contain hazardous materials or ingredients and use and store such items carefully.

• When throwing away wastes, you can allot them into wastes that can be recycled and wastes that can’t. Do not mix household hazardous wastes with other waste materials as they may react and sometime cause combustion or explode.
• Try to reduce the use of hazardous household products as much as possible. This will save you money and also ensure a clean environment.
• Recycled use of hazardous products is one way of ensuring there is no piling up of wastes.
• Organise a community initiative to collect and dispose wastes on a particular day every week. This will reduce the stagnation of waste around homes.
• Avoid burying containers of wastes in the ground as they pollute the soil.
• Use absorbents to solidify liquid wastes.