HHW Collection at Carnegie Mellon

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First Annual Household Hazardous Waste Day A Big Success!

Carnegie Mellon held it's first annual Household Hazardous Waste Day on Saturday November 11, 2000. Students, staff and faculty brought in over 18,000lbs of hazardous materials from their homes. All materials collected were disposed of in the most environmentally friendly manner possible.

Some 6000lbs of latex paint were collected and fifty percent of that was donated to the Pittsburgh Public Works, Graffiti Division. The paint will be reused to paint over area graffiti. College of Fine Arts students were also on hand collecting paint for use on their projects.

We were very pleased with the turnout on our first Household Hazardous Waste Day and hope to offer this program annually to our campus community until a county wide program is available. In the mean time, we will continue our environmental education efforts to help reduce the amount of hazardous materials being used and discarded in municipal waste streams.

Thanks to all of you who participated and to all of you who have given us such positive feedback, we can clearly declare this event a success. Special thanks to the students from EARTH and to all the staff who kindly volunteered their time on a very chilly November day. And finally, congratulations goes out to Linda Schmidt (FMP) and Chris Telmer (GSIA) for being the winners of the drawing for Gift Certificates to the University Bookstore and Union Grill.

The following Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) pamphlets are available by contacting the EH&S office; Household Hazardous Waste What You Can Do About It, "Green" Cleaning Tips, Shining Prospects for the Environment, "Green" Painting Tips: Protect the Environment While Painting Your House." A Household Recycling & Disposal Resource Guide is also available. This guide lists information on commonly used household hazardous materials and companies that will reuse and recycle them. Look for future articles on these subjects.