Friday, May 2, 2008

Eco Peeve Friday: Dumping Paint Down the Drain!

You may wonder if I have seen this enough for it to be an eco peeve, and the sad fact is I have. People dump crazy amounts of toxic substances down drains, rather then take the time to dispose of them properly according to the law. Last winter there were some renovations going on across the street and I saw the man who'd bought the house dumping paint down the city sewer five times in one week! Sick Mister! It turned my stomach, and my one regret now is that I hadn't gotten a picture of it and called the police. (I know I know, what was I thinking?)
The best solution is to stop this madness of using stuff soooo freaken toxic in our homes, cause who the hell really wants bio hazardous waste on their walls?!? Think about it. If it pollutes the water, the soil and everything else- it's polluting your house too.

So in the meantime what can we do with toxic substances we either no longer want, or have finished using? Call your local garbage pick up or dump to ask where the nearest location is that handles toxic materials. There are special landfills designated for these types of toxic materials, that have "liners" in a massive hole to keep it from seeping into ground water & soil. Also check with Earth 911, that has guides to many city's recycling programs and places to dispose of paint. In the future just stop buying this sh*t, there's an alternative out there - non toxic paint is now available at tons of eco stores on the web, and many local big chains carry no VOC too.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

yikes! old paint just seems like something you keep in your basement for forever. Guess you know something is toxic when it can dry on a wall or stay liquid in a can for 20 years, lol. Yuck!

Miss Voodoo said...

You know it- I didn't even think about how wierd that actually is!

Anonymous said...

i think the best way to dispose of paint is to let as much of it dry as possible...disposable brushes and rollers and tray liners. I don't know if i'm right for sure, but i know many landfills only take open, dried up paint cans, because it is less likely to leach that way. dried water based paint is essentially plastic, so it will be useful when one day we are shingling our roofs with landfill plastic scraps.

Miss Voodoo said...

What a good tip, to let it dry out! Also, i like the idea of shingling our roofs with landfill :)