Hundreds of vehicles dropped off tonnes of potentially unsafe junk at the Hazardous Waste Plus Collection event during the two days the the Township and City of Langley were giving residents a chance to safely dispose of potentially toxic chemicals and dangerous items they have accumulated.
The 18th annual event was held Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 27 and Oct. 28), at the Township operations centre.
Township of Langley solid waste coordinator Debbie Fleming released stats from the weekend dump-a-thon that showed a total of 978 vehicles (503 on Saturday, and 475 on Sunday) dropped off corrosive, toxic, flammable, or reactive products, a “modest increase” of 18 vehicles from the previous year.
The total tonnage wasn’t immediately available, but was expected to be more than 40 tonnes.
The event was free, but donations to the Langley Food Bank were encouraged and they filled 11 large blue boxes “stuffed full of really great and thoughtful food items,” Fleming said, about double the amount brought in last year.
“The food bank staff expressed their gratitude saying that Langley residents are quite generous in their giving.”
The process was overseen by seven Township staff and two City of Langley staff each day, plus one volunteer, along with staff from companies that specialize in handling hazardous wastes, including Terrapure Environmental, the hazardous waste experts hired to provide safe collection and disposal of various products, Product Care, which looked after paints, solvents, pesticides and Western Rubber for tires.
READ MORE: VIDEO: Langley residents ridding their homes of hazardous waste
One of the people who dropped by, Terry, brought some bear spray from his old camping days, a bit of spray foam, and a bunch of tree stump sealer
“When you think of in the old days, when people used to dump this on the sides of the roads, and things like that, this is absolutely fabulous,” said Terry, who read about the event in his local newspaper.
Among the more unusual items were a few bullets (which really should have been dropped off at the RCMP, Fleming said) and a battery-operated rubber fish (bass) that would wiggle when touched.
“I have to say I was tempted in thinking my husband might like it…but I threw him back,” Fleming said.”
