It is the time of the year when we start thinking about our household hazardous waste collection program and other scheduled events. It is time to make your disposal plans for old cans of paint, lawn and yard chemicals and solvents that you have been storing for much too long. Again, this year, we will hold 20 collections throughout the county with five of them in the Albert Lea.

These collections are planned in an attempt to accommodate the busy working schedules of all our residents. There are collections that start in the morning, some start at noon, others run late afternoon and the Albert Lea collections are on Saturday mornings.

Freeborn County residents may attend any collection in any city and there is no charge. We do encourage people to attend collections in small communities to spread out our workload, no waiting lines and it reduces the number of volunteers we need for Albert Lea collections.

You should have received a copy of our collection schedule by now. It was printed in the last issue of the Community News Magazine. If you missed seeing it, there are copies of our collection schedule printed on grey paper and located in banks, post offices, city halls and stores throughout the county or you can call our office. The schedule is also found on the Freeborn County Web site under Environmental Services Department.

Last year (2008) our collections were typical of other years. There were 889 households served by our program, many of those people have brought items to our collections in past years. We collected a couple hundred pounds more of solvents and about the same amount of oil and latex paints as 2007.

It is difficult to turn anyone away from our collections, knowing that disposal programs are most successful if we make it easy and convenient. However, our licensing and Minnesota Department of Transportation shipping regulations prevent us from taking some items. Examples of items we cannot accept are any commercial or industrial waste, medical (especially sharps and pills), or farm agriculture waste. There are programs established that accept these items and we provide information about those disposal options. Commercial businesses do not pay the solid waste fee on their taxes, a funding source for our program.

When people bring items to our household hazardous waste collections we have a few simple requirements. One example is we only accept waste from our county residents. Each county operates and funds their own program so out of county people are asked to use their own facility. Another requirement is that each person must fill out a survey form. These surveys help us plan for future collections, provide records of attendance for our state report requirements and helps identify volunteers.

Volunteers have made our program successful. At large collections, such as the ones held in Albert Lea, we need 24 to 28 volunteers to assist us with setting up equipment and bulking areas, dumping paint into barrels, unloading cars, taking surveys, sorting materials and other necessary but important work. Without these volunteers our program would have to be scaled down and services reduced. The next time you see a volunteer who worked at one of our collections, thank them for their service to our community. What an asset! If your service club or group is able to volunteer for a waste collection, please contact our office about dates of interest.

The first household hazardous waste collection this year starts in Freeborn on April 29 and then on to Conger on May 7. The first collection in Albert Lea will be on Saturday, May 16, and the season will end in Glenville on Sept. 24. Of the 20 collections throughout the six-month collection season, we hope all residents will find a day and location to fit their schedule. For questions, please contact our office on the Freeborn County Environmental Services Department Web site or call (507) 377-5186.

Randy Tuchtenhagen is the solid waste officer for Freeborn County, which has a Web site at www.co.freeborn.mn.us.