Household Hazardous Waste (HHW)

Household hazardous waste is any hazardous waste generated incidental to owning or maintaining a place of residence. Household hazardous waste does not include business waste.

Hazardous wastes discarded from homes may threaten human health or the environment when disposed of improperly. Many people don’t realize it, but there are a lot of common household items that are considered hazardous. These include medications, paint, motor oil, antifreeze, auto batteries, lawn care products, pest control products, drain cleaners, pool care products such as chlorine and acids, and household cleaners.

• Recycling companies will recycle the used motor oil, oil filters, batteries and antifreeze.
• Useable paints will be mixed and reused or recycled.
• Unusable materials will be disposed of properly.

Useable products are available at the material exchange program. Call 1-800-OILY CAT 645-9228 for site participation information. Non-profit organizations, residents, and neighborhood cleanup groups can use these materials, including recycled paint. Five gallon buckets of recycled paint are available for free to residents of San Bernardino County, (limit 5 per month).

The Household Hazardous Waste program also educates residents about chemicals, waste reduction, and recycling. The optimum solution is to minimize the generation of hazardous waste through the adoption of safer alternatives.

Visit ecocycle.org for a list of eco-friendly cleaning recipes and alternatives.

Many household products can have adverse effects to the environment and humans if they are not disposed of properly. These products contain harmful ingredients that can leach into ground water, air, or possibly the food we eat. It is illegal to dispose of hazardous waste in the garbage, onto the ground, or down storm drains.

If you illegally dump hazardous waste and are caught, penalties may include fines, the seizure and forfeiture of your vehicle and possibly jail time. If you catch someone involved in illegal dumping, or know of any planned illegal dumping please do not approach them, instead contact the County of San Bernardino Code Enforcement at 909-844-4056 or 760-995-8140.

Refrigerators can be tricky to recycle since many Household Hazardous Waste facilities do not accept them. A waste hauler would have to be contacted and may or may not charge a fee. In addition, Freon and oil may need to be removed from the appliance.

The San Bernardino Central Facility accepts empty and non-empty aerosol cans. However, we encourage residents to use all of the aerosol contents before recycling because they are potential hazards to workers and others. For more information please click the link below:

Aerosol and Paint Containers

Sharps or needles can be potentially dangerous to people and recycling machinery. To help reduce these risks, proper disposal of sharps is vital. The steps to proper and safe disposal of sharps are as follows:

1. Use only approved sharps container for disposal. Please do not place sharps in trash cans, recycle bins, plastic jugs, soda bottles or mix with other hazardous waste.

2. Carefully transport sharps into container. Please do not overfill sharps containers. (3/4 is full).

3. Place a secure lid on the sharps container and transport to your local Home-Generated Sharps Collection site.

The San Bernardino Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility accepts sharps. For directions please contact us at 909-382-5401 or 1-800-OILY CAT (1-800-645-9228) for additional Sharps disposal locations.

Businesses that generate less than 27 gallons or 220 lbs. of hazardous waste or 2.2 lbs. of extremely hazardous waste per month are called “Very Small Quantity Generators,” or VSQGs. San Bernardino County Household Hazardous Waste Program provides waste management services to VSQG businesses. The most common VSQGs in San Bernardino County are, but are not limited to:

• Painters
• Contractors
• Print Shops
• Auto Shops
• Builders
• Agricultural Operators
• Property Managers
• Landlords
• Non-profits such as churches

For more information please click the link below:

Small Business Hazardous Waste- VSQG