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Household Hazardous WasteWhat Happens to the Waste You Bring Us?
SF Recycling and the City & County of San Francisco have made a long-standing effort to landfill as little hazardous waste as possible. Even though sending household hazardous waste to a hazardous waste landfill has historically been the least expensive form of waste disposal, the San Francisco Household Hazardous Waste Facility makes recycling a top priority. Recycling minimizes the landfill problems and conserves valuable raw materials. More than 80 percent of the materials we handle are recycled or used as an industrial fuel. Here are the options in order of our preference: ReuseAbout 5% of what we receive is still good and can be given away and used by someone else. The waste materials are reused without further treatment or handling, for the original intended use of the material. We place these usable materials (as long as they are not banned pesticides or unknown materials) directly in our waste exchange/reuse bin. The public can take these materials for free.RecyclingAbout 58% of the materials we receive are recycled to conserve resources. Most of the latex paint we handle is remixed on site and then given away for free. We send the following wastes off-site for recycling:
Fuel IncinerationAbout 25% of the materials we receive are shipped off-site to be burned as a fuel - usually blended with another material so that it's potential thermal energy is recovered. The wastes sent for fuel blending are oil base paint, flammable solids (such as roofing tar) and flammable liquids (solvents and paint thinner).Destructive IncinerationLess than 5% of the materials we receive are sent to a hazardous waste incinerator to be destroyed. This process results in an incinerator ash that is later sent to a hazardous waste landfill. We use this method for the following wastes: poisons, most oxidizers, PCB waste, cyanides, sulfur, paint chips, and water-reactive chemicals.Neutralization and TreatmentLess than 2% of the materials are shipped off-site to be treated by various means (pH adjustment, filtration, or reaction for example) so that the waste is reduced in volume or converted into a non-hazardous or less hazardous material that can then be safely disposed of by incineration, landfill, or discharged into a public sewer system. Wastes that are treated like this are acids and bases.LandfillAbout 5% of the waste we receive is sent to a hazardous waste landfill as a last resort. These wastes, mostly those that contain asbestos (which does not burn and cannot be treated) can not be managed by any other way. |
