From YourHome.ca:

Disposing of batteries, other hazardous waste easier under new plan

There's a new way to throw out paint and other items left over from renovations.

New homeowner Sarah Daly was in a quandary over where to dispose of her half-empty paint cans.

She knew she could – but shouldn’t – throw the cans in the trash or her home recycling bin.

“We were at a loss of what to do with them,” said the 33-year-old Toronto resident.

Now Daly has a new place to take her leftover paint. Later this week, she and millions of other Ontario residents will learn the details of a $28 million program that will take the headaches out of getting rid of such waste and allow them to simply return it to the store.

It’s part of a new program aimed at diverting more than 32,000 tonnes of household and hazardous waste from Ontario’s landfills over the next five years.

“It’s a fantastic idea,” she said. “Everyone needs to know about it.”

Ontario’s Do What You Can program allows millions of people throughout the province to take back waste, like paint and used non-rechargeable batteries, to participating home renovation stores, such as Home Depot or RONA.

The program will later be expanded to include items such as aerosol containers, fluorescent light bulbs and switches that contain mercury, while a third phase will deal with waste such as contact cement and corrosive cleaners.

While the first phase of the recycling push began in July as municipalities collected more waste on specially designated days, it has taken time for Stewardship Ontario to get retail operations involved, Environment Minister John Gerretsen told the Star. A news conference is planned for Thursday to announce expanded retail collection sites and the program’s website.

By clicking on the website www.dowhatyoucan.ca and plugging in their postal code or municipality, consumers can find out which products they can recycle and where.

Stewardship Ontario, created in 2002 by Waste Diversion Ontario, runs both the Blue Box recycling and the municipal hazardous or special waste programs.

“We’ve only just begun,” said Gerretsen. “This is all about keeping hazardous material out of landfill sites and down the drain.”

Too much of this “potentially toxic” material is ending up in landfills, said Gerretsen. Unless people act now to clean things up, 70 years down the line “they’ll have to clean it up at a much higher cost,” he said.

The program will cost $28 million in its first year, a cost being borne by the makers or importers of paints, engine coolants and batteries, for example. The companies pay fees to Stewardship Ontario based on the amount and type of materials they sell in the province. At least 330 firms, including Honda and Procter & Gamble, are now involved in Stewardship Ontario.

The program does not cost the government a penny and not a cent from it will end up in government coffers, added Gerretsen.

“The producer will be held more responsible,” said Gerretsen. If companies want to add to the price of their product, then that is up to them, said Gerretsen. He said no one tells paint stores how much they should charge for paint. “They can charge the fee back to the consumer if they so wish.”

Under the program, Home Depot stores will take back spent single-use batteries and old paint. Some participating RONA stores will collect unwanted paint. Jiffy Lube and Pro Oil Change plan to take back used oil filters, empty automotive oil containers and antifreeze.

“If you buy a can of paint and there is some left over, take it back to the store,” Gerretsen said.

Once waste such as spent single-use batteries are collected by a store like The Home Depot, Stewardship Ontario will take the used products away. The batteries are transported to a processor. Steel and anything else that can be reused or recycled are removed. What can’t be used is disposed of appropriately, according to environmental disposal standards.

The manufacturers or importers of these products are obliged by law to pay fees to operate this program, but it also has public relations benefits.

“There has been a major cultural shift in their thinking,” he said. “People are more environmentally sensitive to these issues.”

For her part, Daly is thrilled she now has a place she can get rid of the 10, unfinished six-gallon tubs of paint she has in her home. Daly and her partner Nelson Fernandes bought an older home downtown. They are in the process of updating and find themselves frequent visitors to home renovation stores.

“Living downtown we don’t have a car. We can get to a Home Depot by TTC,” said Daly.

The first phase of the program allows for returns of paints and coatings and their containers, solvents such as thinners for paint, lacquer and contact cement, paint strippers and degreasers, used oil filters, oil containers of 30 litres or less, single-use batteries, antifreeze, propane tanks, fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides and pesticides.

The second phase – which Gerretsen hopes to launch this summer – will allow consumers to return more items such as aerosol containers, fluorescent light bulbs and tubes, switches that contain mercury, thermostats, thermometers and barometers.

A final phase will deal with items like contact cement, corrosive cleaners such as ammonia, and pool and photo chemicals.

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