Any leftover household chemicals you have at home – including paints, solvents, pesticides and even cleaning products – shouldn’t be put in your household bins. These might be hazardous and should be disposed of safely.

The City of Sydney and the NSW Environment Protection Authority  run a yearly chemical drop-off day.

The Next Chemical Cleanout

Our next collection will be held on Saturday 24 August from 9am to 3.30pm at Alexandra Canal Depot, 67C Bourke Road, Alexandria 2015.

Next Stop for the Chemicals

Many chemicals collected on the day are recycled while others are treated for safe disposal. There are a number of processes, depending on the type of waste. For example:

• – Paint is mixed with other solvents and used in cement manufacturing while the metal containers are recycled
• – Gas cylinders have any remaining gas taken out while the steel in the bottle is recycled. However, many of the bottles are returned to the hire market – so they are reused rather than recycled.
• – Lead, acid and plastic in batteries are recovered and recycled.
• – Fluoro tubes, which contain mercury, are crushed to isolate the phosphor powder from the glass. This powder is processed to capture any mercury, which is then sold for a range of industrial uses while the leftover glass and metals is put back into the recycling system.