Household Programs

Descriptions of some of the environmental and hazardous waste household programs offered by Pasco County.

Program	Participating Locations	Description
Anti-Freeze Recycling	Hays Road off of State Road 52 Handcart Road off of County Road 579A	Anti-freeze recycling program is strictly limited to households only. Because of this program popularity, we accept household generated used anti-freeze on a daily rather than weekly basis.   We make it a contractual condition that all anti-freezes collected at the County locations are to be recycled and placed back on the open market by the recycling company. Since the start of the County's anti-freeze recycling program, the County has recycled 500 to 600 gallons annually from households.   Businesses should make their own arrangements for recycling anti-freeze. Businesses must keep disposal receipts for at least three years.
Paint Recycling	Hays Road off of State Road 52 Handcart Road off of County Road 579A	We encourage you to bring your leftover paint to our recycling centers. By recycling your paint in this manner you can prevent unnecessary storage problems at home, help someone else, and reduce waste.   Two different types of paint from households are accepted: water-based paint (latex), and oil-based paint (classified as hazardous).   At our recycling centers, Oil-based paint is bulked into drums and sent out for fuel blending and power generation. Latex paint is screened for its usefulness. Good latex paint is mixed and packed in different size containers and the container is marked on the outside with the color of paint it contains. This paint is then made available to the public, free of charge. Since the County may have lots of paint some days and no paint on other days, the County requests that users submit requests a couple of weeks in advance. As could be expected, white paint is the most common paint we can easily prepare. Similarly, very dark color paint, e.g., brown is easy to find, and colors can not be guaranteed. The County neither guarantees the quality nor the availability of the paint. Staff highly recommends the use of this free paint for non-expensive projects such as garages, fences, barns, etc.
Electronic Equipment Recycling		In 1998, Pasco County Utilities Department staff was the first in Florida and one of a handful of counties in the nation to seek an alternative environmentally sound approach to manage the obsolete electronic equipment arriving at our landfill daily. Our electronic equipment collection and recycling centers allow residents to bring their obsolete equipment to us. All equipment received at the center is segregated, classified, and partially dismantled according to a predetermined protocol. Equipment is then palletized and transported to our remanufacturing facility in Tampa. All monitors and televisions are shipped to out of state smelters and re-manufactured.   This innovative county program is very young and we expect it to grow fast with the current technological advancement. It is interesting to mention here that this Pasco County program was awarded a national award for innovation by the National Association of Counties (Naco). This service is provided to both households as well as businesses for a nominal fee.
Sharps Program	Contact the department for more information on sponsors, locations and hours of operation.   If you would like to become a sponsor, please contact the department for the details of the program.	The "Sharps" program provides diabetics and people who administer self injections at home with a means to dispose of their "Sharps": needles, syringes, tubes and other sharps in a very safe manner.   It is estimated that nearly 14,000 insulin-dependent people reside in Pasco County in addition to seasonal visitors who use sharps. Furthermore, there are others whose medical conditions require the use of injected medication. At a minimum of one injection per day, one million needles enter the solid waste stream annually in our county. In the past, these needles clogged our sewer system, ended up at our recycling centers, punctured and put at risk garbage workers, not to mention they are a threat to public safety. Today, with nine hospitals and institutions sponsoring this program, participation by the residents is increasing and the utilization of this service diminishes the risk to public health.   This program is very simple and the sponsoring hospitals and institutions are easily accessible. The program calls for you, the participant, to go to one of the designated locations during work hours. Obtain a red "Sharps" container and take it home. Use the container until filled with biomedical waste; seal the container and take it back to the same location. Exchange the full container for a new one. Use the services as needed.
Household Hazardous Waste Collection	Hays Road off of State Road 52 Handcart Road off of County Road 579A	Household hazardous waste includes pesticides, herbicides, pool chemicals, solvents, polishers, and gasoline. The only items we do not accept from households are biomedical wastes, explosives or radioactive wastes which you are not likely to have at home anyway. The County has a separate program for handling household biomedical waste. Please call us for more information.   Businesses are restricted from utilizing our centers for hazardous waste collection. As a matter of fact businesses that cannot show receipts for their hazwaste disposal are in violation of all hazwaste rules including Federal, State and County rules. These violations could be very risky to you and your business and do not go unpunished. So, please bring in only household items.   All hazardous waste received at the County centers is either recycled or treated in an environmentally sound matter. Since these types of household hazwaste don't recycle easily or inexpensively, the County staff recommends that you buy pesticides in very small quantities, give leftovers to a neighbor to utilize or use substitutes that are less toxic.   The County packs and sends out for recycling and treatment, on average, 25,000 to 33,000 pounds of hazardous waste annually. Through education and smart shopping we hope this volume will continue to decline. Expensive recycling costs can be true for some other items, so please shop wisely.
Household Battery Recycling	There are over 100 collection locations: retailers (e.g. K-Mart, Radio Shack, Wal-Mart), civic associations, municipalities, the school system, County buildings, recycling centers, and hazwaste centers.   Blue 5-gallon plastic containers have been distributed throughout the County at all participating locations. White and blue posters encouraging people to recycle batteries convey the use of these containers. Both containers and posters are placed at entrances, such as at the County libraries, or other easily noticed location. Some retailers place them where new batteries are sold or even behind the counter, so ask if you don't see one.	This program began in February 1991 with the objective of removing household batteries and their hazardous contents from the solid waste stream. Household batteries make up 10% to 25% of our hazardous waste stream. These types of batteries contain at least 22 toxic elements plus plastic and steel. All of these elements can be recovered and used in the re-manufacturing of new batteries and other consumer products: mercury, lead, cadmium, chromium, manganese, silver, selenium and acids.   To compliment this program, As the program matures, more and more batteries are collected and recycled. Today, the County recycles about 33,000 pounds annually. All batteries are packed and sent to a company in Pecos, Texas, where they are completely recycled. Raw materials recovered are sold on the open market and re-used.   To educate and encourage our school children to participate, County staff together with Pasco School Board's staff holds annual battery collection and recycling contests for students in Pasco County elementary schools. Prizes and awards are given to the top three schools. Funds for the prizes and awards are provided by a variety of sponsors.
Flourescent Light Bulb Recycling		Fluorescent light bulbs, U shape light bulbs, and High Intensity Discharge light bulbs (HID) have a certain amount of mercury that will dissipate into the surrounding environment when they break. Mercury is a very toxic element that tends to accumulate in body tissues. Once it reaches a certain level, it tends to adversely harm the nervous system particularly in children. This is what happens in the case when these bulbs are placed in a landfill or incinerated; and is precisely what this program is guarding against.   This is a relatively new program in the County and it is designed to serve households only. Our facilities can only accept a few fluorescent light bulbs from households. Businesses that generate fluorescent light bulbs are prohibited from placing these bulbs in the trash. This is a Florida law and businesses are to be adhered to the law.    In addition to mercury, fluorescent light bulbs contain aluminum, glass, and phosphorous, all of which can be recycled. Pasco County recycles 5,000 to 7,000 light bulbs annually. This translates to nearly 2,750 to 3,850 pounds of aluminum, glass, mercury and phosphorous, elements that can be re-used in the re-manufacturing of new products.
Lead-Acid (Automotive) Battery Recycling	Hays Road off of State Road 52 Handcart Road off of County Road 579A	Lead-Acid Batteries (automobile batteries) contain hazardous as well as non-hazardous waste that can be recycled. Lead-Acid Batteries are forbidden to be placed in a landfill or incinerated. In fact it is mandatory that we completely recycle these batteries once we receive them. Auto batteries consist of lead, sulfuric acid (both are hazardous), and plastic that is non-hazardous and easily recycled. All batteries received are sent to a battery smelter for total recycling.   Because auto batteries have the potential to contaminate the ground water and that lead is very highly toxic to humans (particularly children) and animals, we recommend that batteries be stored and handled properly at home as well as at your shop. Properly store used batteries until such time they can be brought to the County's facilities or picked up by your recycler (if you are a business owner). We recommend that all batteries should be stored on concrete or impervious surfaces, and Should be protected from rain, sun and general weather conditions.   You can bring your auto batteries to recycle regardless if you are a household or a business, free of charge. Businesses are required to keep receipts of proper recycling. These receipts will have to be produce at the time of your facility inspection in order to prove proper disposal. County staff does not furnish any receipts of disposal. This is because the County facilities are designed primarily for households, and households are not required to have receipts. Business owners are advised to manage their materials on their own (make their own arrangements) so that they can document proper disposal as required by law.
Used Motor Oil Recycling	Proper disposal of motor oil through the county's recycling program can be accomplished through one of three means: Take your oil to one of four County centers: Dade City, Spring Hill, City of New Port Richey, or City of Zephyrhills. Take your oil to one or more of the drop off business locations distributed throughout the county. For a location near you, please call the County. Or Call your auto repair shop and ask if they accept used motor oil from the public.	The deluge of used oil which comes rushing out of a multitude of cars, boats, trucks, and even grass mowers is causing a major threat to our environment. In the United States, car owners who do their oil changes generate an estimated 400 million gallons of used motor oil annually. In Florida, more than 7 million gallons of used motor oil end up in our trash, soils and in storm water run off.   This program is essentially designed to provide "Do-It-Your-Selfer" households with a means by which they can have their used motor oil recycled. Households and businesses alike are forbidden from tossing their motor oil in the trash, dumping it on the grounds or in sewer systems, septic tanks, or any surface waters (ponds, lakes, rivers or streams) or even using motor oil to kill weeds. Disposing of motor oil using any of the methods mentioned above is considered a crime in the State of Florida. Thus it behooves all of us to properly dispose of our motor oil through the County's Motor Oil Recycling Program.   This is free of charge. Why recycle used motor oil? Most of our drinking water comes from the Florida Aquifer. Due to its shallowness, this aquifer has a great possibility of being contaminated with contaminants seeping through from above grounds. One of the major threats to our shallow aquifer is derived from indiscriminate dumping of used oil. For years we have heard the say "one gallon of oil can contaminate one million gallons of drinking water". It is also important to recycle motor oil for the simple reason that it takes 42 gallons of crude oil to produce 2.5 quarts of motor oil, while it takes one gallon of used oil to produce the same amount. Over the years we have been recycling an average of 15,000 to 17,000 gallons of used motor oil in the County.