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Today at the fairgrounds, the EPA had a "Hazardous Waste Event." (Sounds like it ought to involve a dance and maybe the crowning of a Miss Hazardous Waste of Central Illinois, doesn't it?)
I thought we might have a can or two of paint to get rid of, so I went through the basement and the garage last night. I filled up the entire trunk of my car. Paint we used. Paint that was in the house when we moved in. Paint so old that when I picked up the cans, the bottoms came loose and these rounds of dried-up paint fell on the floor. (The spouse came down and saw one of these rounds and said, "Ooh, you bought an ice-cream cake?")
Also: Chemicals the former residents used on their roses. The little set of cleaning products that came with my first car, which I sold in 1996. Tile adhesive. And one five-gallon white plastic jug of something with no label and a childproof cap.
It took the EPA three minutes to clean out my trunk, but before that, I waited in a line of cars for fifty minutes. We went back and forth and back and forth like when there's a long line at the bank, and at one point an arm came out of the car in front of me and took a picture with a cellphone.
A hundred and fifty cars, idling for fifty minutes. I really hope this was better for the environment, on balance, than just dumping our old paint in the river.
I thought we might have a can or two of paint to get rid of, so I went through the basement and the garage last night. I filled up the entire trunk of my car. Paint we used. Paint that was in the house when we moved in. Paint so old that when I picked up the cans, the bottoms came loose and these rounds of dried-up paint fell on the floor. (The spouse came down and saw one of these rounds and said, "Ooh, you bought an ice-cream cake?")
Also: Chemicals the former residents used on their roses. The little set of cleaning products that came with my first car, which I sold in 1996. Tile adhesive. And one five-gallon white plastic jug of something with no label and a childproof cap.
It took the EPA three minutes to clean out my trunk, but before that, I waited in a line of cars for fifty minutes. We went back and forth and back and forth like when there's a long line at the bank, and at one point an arm came out of the car in front of me and took a picture with a cellphone.
A hundred and fifty cars, idling for fifty minutes. I really hope this was better for the environment, on balance, than just dumping our old paint in the river.