Waste Day coming up May 10

Got old batteries, cleaning fluids, aerosol containers, or paint cans lying around but don’t know how to get rid of them?
If so, the Rainy River First Nation Watershed Program, in co-operation with the Town of Fort Frances and other district municipalities, have a solution when Household Hazardous Waste Day 2002 is held here next Saturday.
Running from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at both the Public Works building on the corner of Wright Avenue and Fifth Street West, and the municipal garage in Rainy River, district residents are encouraged to come out to this third-annual event.
“We are going to do this at two depots this year,” said Watershed program co-ordinator Martin Nantel on Friday, referring to the fact items had to be brought to Fort Frances last year, and to Emo the year before.
“Hopefully it will encourage more participation from the west end of he district,” he added. “We want to do this so that if someone comes from any part of the district, they won’t have to travel long with the waste in their vehicle.”
 Nantel noted the response should be positive, saying people’s “environmental consciousness” grows every year.
“Last year, we had double the amount of waste from the year before,” he remarked. “A lot of these substances people know are hazardous. They know not to pour them down the drain or drop them off at the landfill.”
 Waste products you can turn in on Saturday, May 10 include batteries, drain cleaners, oven cleaners, pesticides, rat poison, pharmaceuticals, cleaning fluids, pool chemicals, bleach, ammonia, aerosols, paints/solvents, oils/gasoline, barbecue starter fluid, and propane cylinders.
Waste products should be separated and labelled, and not mixed, stressed Nantel.
As well, no PCBs, commercial, infectious, radioactive, or unknown wastes will be accepted.
Last year, more than 5,000 litres/kg of solid and liquid materials—ranging from car batteries to a jar of mercury—was turned in.
 Among the wastes disposed here last May included 40 litres of acids, 20 litres of bases, 600 litres of organic liquids, 20 litres of inorganic oxidizer, 100 litres of liquid pesticides, 40 kg of aerosols, 150 litres of flammable liquids, 1,600 litres of alkyd/latex paints, 1,025 of petroleum oil, 10 kg of propane, and 1,500 of lead acid batteries.
Fort Frances accounted for 87 of the 99 households that dropped off waste while four Devlin households also participated. The remaining eight were either from miscellaneous district municipalities or not identified.
The Watershed program organized the first waste day in Emo in September, 2001.