Free Hazardous Waste Collection Event in Portsmouth Planned for June 18

PORTSMOUTH, RI—Residents hanging on to old paint cans, fluorescent light bulbs, pesticides and other hazardous household waste have an opportunity to get rid of those items for free on June 18 at Portsmouth High School..

Rhode Island Resource Recovery, which operates the central landfill in Johnston, is hosting the free Eco-Depot event in the hopes of compelling more residents to safely discard their hazardous materials instead of tossing them in the trash bin.

The event will be held on Saturday, June 18 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The event will accept electronic waste.

Resource Recovery is hosting a similar event in Johnston on the same day at the landfill, 65 Shun Pike, Johnson.

Portsmouth High School is located at 120 Education Lane.

“I am optimistic that Portsmouth residents will take advantage of this opportunity to clean out to old cleaners, paints and garden chemicals in the back of the cupboards or garage,” said Sanne Kure-Jensen, Portsmouth's recycling coordinator. “If people miss this chance to drop off old TVs, monitors and computers, our next e-waste collection event will be Saturday, October 29 from 9 a.m. to noon at Portsmouth High School.”

Many common household items are actually household hazardous waste materials that should not be collected through Rhode Island’s standard trash and recycling collection services. These materials include: fluorescent light bulbs, gasoline, pesticides, oil-based paints, disinfectants, used motor oil and lawn and pool chemicals. When not properly collected and disposed, these materials can cause harm to the local environment by contaminating Rhode Island’s waterways. For a full list of household hazardous waste materials, please visit www.ecodepotri.org.

Appointments for either event are not required.

Note: An earlier version of this story indicated that e-waste would not be accepted. It will be accepted. We apologize for the error.