Area residents can drop off paint, batteries, chemicals, solvents, cleaners and other types of hazardous waste at a household hazardous waste collection event slated for 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13.
The event will be held at the Carthage Fire Department parking lot at Sycamore and Garrison streets in Carthage.
The Carthage City Council accepted the bid offered from Haz-M.E.R.T., of Rogers, Ark. to hold the event. Haz-M.E.R.T. was the only company that bid to hold the event and has held it in the past.
The company will be paid a minimum of $1,600 for moving their equipment to Carthage whether the event happens or not.
The cost of the collection event is split between the Region M Solid Waste District and the city.
Carthage Public Works Director Chad Wampler said the event is normally held in the spring, but a change in the scheduling of the grant from Region M forced the city to move the event.
One change is that since the city has started collecting electronic waste, such as computers, televisions other devices, those will not be collected at this event.
Residents can also bring appliances, with compressors already removed, to the Carthage Recycling Center on west Macon Street between Sept. 6 and Sept. 20.
For more details about the event, people can call the public works department at 237-7010.
Wampler said the event would also feature a "reuse center," a trailer where residents can look over items and chemicals that have been brought to the collection and take them if they can use them.
He said at a past household hazardous waste collection, someone brought in dozens of cans of unopened wood sealant that were claimed by another person. Cans of paint and other materials can also be found and claimed at the reuse center.
Some examples of hazardous materials that will be collected at the household hazardous waste day in September are aerosols, anti-freeze, different kinds of batteries, fluorescent light ballasts, fluorescent and other kinds of light bulbs, cleaners, corrosives, fire extinguishers and other kinds of compressed gas cylinders, fertilizers, flammable liquids and solids, motor oil and other kinds of oil, paints, pesticides and poisons.
