Saturday is Hazardous Waste Disposal Day, But is Twice Yearly Enough? [POLL]

On Saturday, the Town of Smithtown will allow residents to drop off hazardous waste such as cleaning solvents, herbicides and pesticides at the municipal services facility on Old Northport Road in Kings Park, an event that happens twice a year.

But Patch has heard concerns from residents that twice yearly is just not often enough.

For example, in Islip town residents are able to bring their hazardous materials to a facility year-round.

“We have probably the most comprehensive household hazardous waste program of any town on Long Island … many are running off of ours," said Islip Town of Environmental Control Commissioner Christopher Andrade. "We have a permanent building which means residents in our town can come any day our recycling facility is open.” 

The program became a year-round event in Islip when town supervisor Phil Nolan saw the need to collect on a regular basis.

“One of the supervisor’s first actions when elected was to encourage us to create a permanent hazardous waste facility so residents wouldn’t have to wait to dispose of that material,” said Andrade.

“His thoughts were people should have the opportunity to dispose of it when it became available to dispose of instead of storing someplace and waiting for five or six months.

The neighboring Town of Brookhaven also eclipses Smithtown's efforts, offering its residents the opportunity to dispose of hazardous waste twice weekly during the months of April and May and weekly from November through March.

“It becomes a storage and safety issue if its not stored properly,” said Andrade. “People might store old gasoline near pool chemicals, it can become dangerous.”

The only info available from Smithtown was found on its website, which outlines the twice-yearly program.

Calls to Town of Smithtown officials were not returned.

Hauppauge editor Sara Walsh contributed to this story.