Go to the Illinois Watershed Partnership website to win prizes at WWW.IRWP.ORG


When used as directed, many potentially hazardous household products including paints, cleaners, solvents, pesticides and automotive fluids are safe and make our lives easier. By reading product labels, you can generally tell which ones have hazardous ingredients. Look for signal words such as DANGER, FLAMMABLE, POISON or FATAL IF SWALLOWED. These are clues that a hazardous substance is present and that careful use, handling and disposal is required—especially if unused portions of the product are in liquid form.

One way to reduce potential hazardous waste is to choose non-toxic alternatives when making product purchases (e.g. baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar instead of commercial cleaning products). Since, alternative are not always possible or desirable, strive to buy the least amount of product needed so there is less leftover for storage or disposal (e.g. buy a pint of paint instead of a gallon).

Do you store fuel for your lawnmower or other gas-powered equipment in containers such as glass jars, plastic jugs or coffee cans? Hazardous household products should be stored in their original, labeled container according to their temperature requirement in a place that's out of reach of children and pets. This will help identify the product and preserve label directions for later use and disposal as well as protect the integrity of the product and reduce the chance for accidental ingestion.

Even with the best plans for purchasing and reuse, we all must dispose of potentially hazardous materials at times. When this happens, dispose of used oil, antifreeze, paints, and other household chemicals properly, not in storm drains. If available, take advantage of local hazardous household waste roundups and permanent hazardous waste facilities. This will ensure that your waste will not be harmful to others, yourself or the environment. If your community does not already have a program for collecting household hazardous wastes, encourage your local government to establish one.


Viewer Actions:
- Think about product waste before buying it (pre-cycling)
- Read labels to look for products that are not toxic, caustic, flammable, poisonous, etc.
- Read and follow label directions precisely!
- Store unused product in the original, labeled container
- Share leftovers (properly labeled) with friends and neighbors
- Bring leftover household hazardous products to regional round-ups or collection centers