Slightly Off KIlter

[ This entry was originally written at 16:00 on Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004, and posted to my (private) family-only weblog. I decided to post it here, on commentary, as well. ]

Well, I’m back from my appointment with San Mateo County HHW (Household Hazardous Waste) Disposal and it only took 4 weeks to get the appointment (and 2 hours of my time, borrowing a friend’s truck, and no small amount of frustration).

Background: Back in late November, after clearing out the storage locker (and a cabinet in the garage) we found ourselves with approximately 30 gallons of assorted paints, stains, thinners, varnishes, and deck and roofing treatments. The 10 gallons of interior latex paint were easy to get rid of – the local recycling station accepted those. The remainder, however, was much more problematic, starting with the fact that it’s considered to be “Household Hazardous Waste” (HHW). Da DUM! (suspenseful organ chords in background)

First off, you can’t just dispose of HHW in the trash, and no one will come take it away. You must take it to an approved drop-off location. There are such in San Mateo County, but they move around. You can make an “appointment at your convenience” (as long as your convenience has a 4-week lead time) or choose to go to an “event” (not a valid option; events were booked up even farther ahead). So, after much grumbling, complaining, a phone call to our County council member and letters to our State legislators, we made an appointment for 4 weeks hence.

The next tricky part is that you’re not allowed to “transport” more than 10 gallons of “hazardous waste” without permit. Given that we had approximately 20 gallons of stuff, ranging from nearly full pints, to partial quarts and gallons, to a full 5-gallon bucket of “Snow Roof” (a water-based acrylic product with a very low toxicity rating which is nonetheless classified as HHW because it’s a “roofing” product!) we had to make (can you guess?) 2 appointments. Happily, the gods decided to do us a little favor and we could make both appointments on the same day for the same facility.

So, next question. Transporting the stuff. Some of it has been leaking. All of it has been sitting outdoors (in the rain) since late November. Much of it is rusty. The drips of snow roof on the outside of those cans are, well, water-based and still water-soluble. I don’t want any of this stuff in my car. So Rich had an inspiration. He called our friend Dennis and we arranged to swap the Corolla for Dennis’ little pickup truck in trade for a nice dinner. Such a deal. Being a real sweetie, Rich even loaded the heaviest of the cans of stuff into the truck for me last night.

Today was the appointment day. One at 2:30, one at 4:15. The HHW drop-off shares temporary (occasional) space with the Blue Line Transfer Station (when in South San Francisco). This is out at the end of Oyster Point, about 50 feet from the Bay (about 1 mile from Genentech; about 10 miles from our house). I checked a map and drove over. This takes about 1/2 an hour.

Considering how difficult it was to get the appointment, one might think there would be a line. There was one car ahead of me, with three cardboard boxes of paint and lighter fluid, etc, in the trunk. That took about 5 minutes to unload. Then it was my turn. The HHW disposer (clad in Tyvek jumpsuit and blue rubber gloves but neither face mask nor eye protection) said “Hello”. I told him I had two appointments but hadn’t kept the paperwork for the second. He asked if I’d brought everything with me. I said no, I wasn’t “permitted”. He smiled sympathetically (at which point it occurred to me that if I had brought everything at once, it’s unlikely anyone would have complained, yelled, issued a citation, or otherwise raised a fuss…).

I asked if I would have to wait until 4:15 to come back. He said no, I could just go get the rest and come right back. The disposal people unloaded the truck and I went home, (accidentally going out the “in” lanes of the Transfer Station at first and needing to make an embarrassed U-turn!); loaded the rest of the HHW into the truck, and drove back. This time there was no one in front of me. (Where are all the people who were gobbling up the other appointments??). They unloaded the rest and I came home again. Including loading time and travel time, the whole procedure took just under 2 hours.

One amusing side note. One the border between South San Francisco (the Industrial Park) and South San Francisco (the Industrial City) is a large (10′ diameter) circle made of pipe, painted blue, with a blue double-helix (also made of pipe) across the center and the words, South San Francisco, Birthplace of Biotechnology. Sure.