How Nucor Tuscaloosa is Helping Communities Eliminate Hazardous Waste
For four hours on a Saturday morning, volunteer Nucor employees waited in a parking lot for people to show up with bad things. They came. By the hundreds they came and brought with them thousands of cans of paint, bottles of oil, flammable liquids, car batteries, household cleaners and other hazardous materials.
It was the first public collection of hazardous household materials in Tuscaloosa, and judging by the strong chemical smell that came from the enormous mounds of material, it was a huge success.
"Practically every household has hazardous materials," said Eric Larmore, the environmental manager for Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa, Inc. and sponsor of the event. "Something like this will allow for a responsible and safe disposal of these materials to help protect our environment."
"I brought mostly some old containers of insecticides, fungicides and a bottle of muriatic acid that I've been holding onto for 20 to 30 years,"
As to disposal, Nucor contracted with an environmental service to properly dispose of the waste. According to Larmore, "Forty percent of the stuff we collected will be recycled. The rest will be incinerated or put in a licensed landfill."
"We had well over 500 [people] come here today bringing us their hazardous waste," said Larmore. "And some of the stuff we got had been sitting in peoples garages for more than 30 years." Though Larmore said there was nothing too unusual brought in, there were a few unknown products that he said will have to be sent to a lab to be identified.
"I brought mostly some old containers of insecticides, fungicides and a bottle of muriatic acid that I've been holding onto for 20 to 30 years," a man said as Nucor Steel employees unloaded the hazardous materials from the back of his van.
"I didn't realize how much unused stuff I had that I couldn't get rid of until a friend e-mailed me about this event," he said. "I think this is a great thing, especially for folks who don't know how to properly get rid of hazardous material."