More than 125 people showed up for the Hazardous Waste Collection July 19 to rid their garages and storage sheds of various goop and gunk.
“It was a pretty typical year,” said Steve Haavig, the contractor of the event. “We had a good turnout. Haines is always one of our busiest places.”
There were a total of 12 drums, 150 lead acid car batteries, 225 gallons of used oil and three boxes full of hazardous waste that were collected by the end of the event. One cubic-yard box is equal to around four drums, according to Haavig.
Last year, a total of 17 drums were collected, but that doesn’t necessarily mean last year did better than this year.
“If we can only fill a drum half way or a quarter of the way full, then we typically store it and save it for next year’s event,” said Haavig. “So sometimes some years look better than the others just because we have extra drums from previous years.”
Haavig collected 12 drums of waste from Haines this year. There also were three drums that were not fully filled, which are being stored in the public works building until next year’s event.
“It was a fairly vanilla year,” said Haavig. “Nothing too crazy occurred and Haines kept us busy, as they usually do.”