Setting Up A Drop Zone

Our homes are filled with many MHSW materials. Throwing them in the garbage or pouring them down the drain can be dangerous to our families and our environment. We can manage MHSW materials easily and responsibly in our homes.

Next time you take a battery out of a remote, appliance or a toy, don’t toss it in the garbage where it will eventually contaminate soil and groundwater. Instead, collect them in a convenient place until you can make a trip to an Orange Drop Zone to recycle them. Got left over paint you can’t use up or give away? Plan to take it back to one of our retail collection sites next time you’re running an errand there.

By returning these materials to your local Municipal Recycling Facility, to collection events and to many retailers we can all ensure that they’re reused or recycled into new materials. If they can’t be reused or recycled, they’ll be disposed of in the most environmentally responsible way possible.

Sensible Cautions

Here are a few tips on how to safely store the MHSW materials in your home before returning them to a Municipal Recycling Facility, collection event or participating retailer

• Find an area that isn’t often used and call it your Drop Zone – it can be as small as an Orange Drop bag stored in your basement, garage or closet where you can gather or collect Orange Drop materials you may be finished with
• Always make sure any dangerous materials are put in sealed containers and are out of reach of children and away from sources of heat/light
• Store incompatible products separately. Keep corrosive products away from flammable ones
• Make Drop Boxes for different categories of materials – keep all your old used batteries together in a box or plastic tub in a kitchen drawer. Keep all your aerosol containers in a reusable shopping bag or extra Blue bin
• If you have used sharps, collect them in a sharps container that you can return to a participating pharmacy. If you have old containers of pharmaceuticals, collect them in a sealable plastic bag out of reach from children and plan to return them on your next trip to the drug store
• Make plans to empty your Orange Drop materials once a month at your nearest Orange Drop depot – find the nearest location to you or check out when there is a collection event near you

Have an Orange Drop tip to share? Email us at: info@makethedrop.ca