Vehicles carrying old tires, used oil, electronics and more made a beeline to the Lauderdale County Road Department on Saturday morning as residents looked to rid themselves of hazardous materials on Solid Waste Amnesty Day.
Held twice-yearly, the Solid Waste Amnesty Day gives residents an opportunity to properly dispose of unwanted garbage that cannot be thrown out with regular residential trash. Hazardous wastes such as batteries, appliances, solvents and paints are collected at no cost to residents and removed from the environment.
“Some of it will go for recycling such as batteries, fluorescent bulbs, and some if it will go for incineration and disposal, some of the more hazardous things,” said Jerry Broadway of Complete Environmental out of Purvis, Mississippi. “Some of the least hazardous, it’ll go to certain landfills that can solidify it and dispose of it in specially lined landfills, which is different than your normal rubbish fields that could leak into your groundwater system.”
Broadway said residents are left with few options to get rid of hazardous materials outside of Amnesty Days.
Lauderdale County Road & Bridge’s David Mayatt said Amnesty Day is a service the county is able to provide for its residents. Giving people an option to dispose of things the right way is a benefit to the whole community.
“We’re just trying to have somewhere the public can bring such as that instead of throwing it on the side of the road,” he said. “We’re trying to keep Lauderdale County a cleaner place to live so everybody can be proud to say they live in Lauderdale County.”
In addition to hazardous household waste, Mayatt said the event also serves as a drop off for expired medications and sharps.
Saturday’s event saw 215 vehicles with more than 175 old tires collected, according to Solid Waste Enforcement Officer Daniel Mabry. The event also saw a significant amount of electronics, liquids and other materials come through.