Twice the amount collected at this year’s HazMobile

Up to 27 tonnes of hazardous waste was safely disposed of during the HazMobile drive in Hastings and Napier over the weekend.

Only half that amount was collected at the same event last year.

Dominic Salmon of Hastings District Council’s Wipe Out Waste team said the collection was very successful with 900 vehicles arriving to dispose of hazardous waste over the weekend.

“Cars arrived full of paints, oils, old batteries, gas bottles and other things that you can’t put into the ordinary rubbish collection. People stayed in their vehicles while waste experts and trained volunteers collected the goods and sorted them."

“We conducted a survey of all those attending the collections and there was overwhelming support for HazMobile with many requests for a collection to be held twice a year. Feedback is about 98% positive,” said Mr Salmon.

Waste collected at the sites is sent to specialist contractors who dispose of it safely.

Some materials such as paint are recycled. Old paint is treated and processed into outdoor and anti-graffiti paints. Paint makes up more than half of all material collected at the HazMobile.

Dominic Salmon said the HazMobile helped ensure people didn’t keep dangerous materials on their properties or dispose of them unsafely in general rubbish collections.

“There are some real ‘nasties’ that are collected and taken to places like Auckland for destruction, the persistent things like DDT poisons go as far Belgium for proper destruction under the correct environmental procedures,” Mr Salmon said.

Material collected at the HazMobile drive includes:
• 6000 litres of paint;
• 6600 litres of waste oil;
• 600 litres of solvents;
• 5300 litres of flammable liquids;
• 2600 litres of acid and tar;
• 4 tonnes of chemicals;
• 2.5 tonnes of gas bottles; and,
• 3 tonnes of car batteries.

This is the fourth year running Hastings and Napier have hosted the HazMobile collection.

The HazMobile collection has been in operation since 2000, with nearly 40 collections taking place across the country annually. Visit www.hazmobile.govt.nz for more information.

ENDS

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