Mornington Peninsula Shire has recently decorated one of its waste collection trucks with signage, warning residents about the dangers of putting hazardous waste items – like batteries, gas bottles and flammable items – into kerbside bins.
Operated by our contractor, Solo Resource Recovery, the truck was decorated after incorrectly disposed of hazardous waste items caused fires in our waste trucks and at our Resource Recovery Centres.
These fires not only cause costly damage to vehicles and facilities, but they pose a huge health and safety risk to our workers, community, and the environment – as well as disrupting kerbside collection services.
What is household hazardous waste?
Many residents are unaware that common household items, like paint, fluorescent lights, and cleaning products can be hazardous. A substance is hazardous if it:
- can catch fire
- reacts or explodes when mixed with other substances
- releases dangerous vapours
- is corrosive or toxic.
The following are hazardous waste items:
- all kinds of batteries, flat or not (e.g. household batteries, car, phone, laptop, power tool, camera, vaping devices)
- chemicals
- paint
- fluorescent lights
- gas bottles and butane gas canisters
- flares
- aerosols.
How to correctly dispose of your hazardous waste
Hazardous waste items should not be placed in your kerbside general waste, recycling or food and green waste bins, but taken to your nearest drop-off point. In most cases, disposing of these hazardous items is free of charge.
Visit mornpen.vic.gov.au/HazardousWaste
