This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, June 26, 2012 - On a muggy Saturday morning in mid-June hundreds of cars poured into the the parking lot of South County Center in Mehlville for the last St. Louis County household hazardous waste recycling event of the season.
Waiting in line for for more than an hour at times, hundreds of cars poured into the lot to unload unwanted cans of paint, old car batteries, lawn chemicals and a host of other hazardous products that cannot otherwise be safely disposed of.
Walter and Marsha Roberson were among those in the line, dropping off old cans of paint and paint thinner that had been sitting at home for years. They said they would probably still be sitting there if not for the south county event.
Like many waiting in line, the Robersons said they were there for environmental reasons. They had been waiting for an event like this one so they could properly dispose of unused hazardous materials.
"We live in a beautiful place, I'd like to keep it that way," Walter Roberson said. Disposing of waste in a responsible way is a part of that, he added.
The Robersons are among a growing number of area residents looking for ways to be more environmentally friendly in their waste disposal. As single-stream recycling of items like paper, plastic and cans has become more common in recent years, the process has become easier and cheaper.
But because it cannot really be recycled in a traditional sense, household hazardous waste (HHW) has largely been an exception. But officials from St. Louis County say they hope that will soon change.
Not far from Saturday's event, construction may begin as early as July on a county facility in Lemay that will serve as the area's first permanent collection site for HHW.
The facility at 291 Hoffmeister in Lemay will replace six annual collection events like the one in South County hosted by the county each year, said John Haasis, the head of the St. Louis County solid waste management program.
That means that residents of St. Louis city and county and Jefferson County won't have to wait for periodic collection events. It will be possible to make an appointment online year round to drop off unwanted waste at a single facility.
"We currently host one to two events in an area a year; the new facility will be open one to two days every week, Haasis said.
The first 50 pounds of waste a visit will be free of cost, though residents will have to pay a fee based on any additional weight they wish to dispose of.
Defraying high cost of disposal
The current one-day events, which drew 11,000 households in 2010 and are free to residents, cost the county up to $800,000 a year, according to Haasis. That figure is increasingly unsustainable.
The events have historically been co-sponsored by St. Louis County, St. Louis and Jefferson County and financed in part with grants from the St. Louis-Jefferson Solid Waste Management District. Aside from grant money, most of the money comes from tipping fees leveled by the St. Louis County on landfills, Haasis said. The problem is that as recycling has increased in the region, the amount of solid waste being deposited in landfills has decreased, and with it, so has the amount the county collects in tipping fees.
The new facility will cost around $650,000 by the time it is completed in October, Haasis said. Construction will be financed in large part by a $500,000 one-time grant from the St. Louis-Jefferson Solid Waste District, with the remaining cost being picked up by state and county tipping fee funds.
The hope is that the new facility will be more cost effective than the current system, Haasis said.
"At a certain volume, the permanent facility is cheaper to do per pound of waste," Haasis said.
The cost to taxpayers created by the facility is minimal, according to Haasis, indirectly coming from the waste removal fee residents pay for curbside trash and recycling pick-up.
The county will not publicize the facility at first, instead opting for a low-key trial run to see how it runs and to work out kinks. And though another facility could potentially be built in north St. Louis County sometime in the near future, Haasis and his department are hoping to defray future hazardous waste.
"Because it's so costly, our main message is not 'bring it to us,' but 'don't create it in the first place.' Don't have left-overs that you have to bring to us, just don't buy more than you need," Haasis said.
That being said, Haasis said he hopes that eventually the Lemay facility will serve as a model for others in the area. Although cities like Columbia, Springfield, and St. Charles already have permanent HHW facilities, much of the state is still underserved.
"The model we have we could possibly extend that out to other areas of the state," Haasis said. "The way this is designed, as long as other areas a have funding to join, we have the infustructure."
Long time in the making
After years of speculation and delay, the new Lemay dropping point was only made possible when the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District became involved a few years ago, and offered to donate land for the facility on one of their existing water treatment sites.
The agreement not only provided the land for the project, Haasis said, but made it a lot easier to win support for the project as the land was already dedicated to waste treatment.
"They were a natural partner for us," he said. "They don't want this in the sewer system. They have a vital interest in this program."
Lance LeComb, the head of public affairs for MSD, agreed with Haasis, and said the partnership between the two was an easy pairing.
"Traditionally there are not many ways for the public at large to dispose of these materials," LeComb said. "And if not clear threat to human health and safely, they are a real problem."
The program will be operate by PSC, whose employees will staff the Lemay facility and dispose of the waste collected there. Haasis said the facility will have voluminous storage capability allowing for weekly bulk collection.
For a complete list of accepted materials at the new facility and more recycling information, visit St. Louis County's Health and Wellness Department website.