Facility for disposing hazardous household waste opens on campus

The first household hazardous waste disposal facility in West
Los Angeles, a joint project by the City of Los Angeles and the
UCLA Office of Environmental Health and Safety, opened on March
25.

Located in the UCLA Environmental Services Building on Charles
E. Young Drive West, the center serves the surrounding community as
an easily accessible household hazardous waste collection site. The
aim of the project is to ensure safe disposal of harmful materials
and prevent environmental pollution.

People in the neighborhood can bring in waste such as paint and
used motor oil to the center free of charge. Gia Dowling, senior
administrative analyst of the EHS office, said prior to the
building of this facility in Westwood, other waste treatment sites
managed by the City of Los Angeles alone were available but
required an inconvenient drive for Westwood residents. The
city’s waste disposal service charges users $125 for each
pick-up and transportation of hazardous substances.

Dowling said the city and UCLA have cooperated in the past on
environmental protection issues, and that the EHS office had been
contributing by offering hazardous waste collection locations once
per quarter. Three years ago, both offices took one step further
and started developing the new permanent waste collection site.

In the partnership, Los Angeles contributes funding for
operation of the center, including workers’ pay. The EHS
office provides employees who are specialists in hazardous waste
disposal and treatment, Dowling said.

She points out that the disposal procedure is very different
from usual garbage handling, and requires technical experts who
know exactly how the waste should be segregated and sent to
appropriate places for further treatment.

The collection center accepts items such as anti-freeze,
cleaning products, medicines and electronic waste like cables,
video games, printers and computers.

Dowling said though some of these items are not commonly
recognized as hazardous materials, they can react and release toxic
substances if disposed of in a landfill.

The center does not accept more dangerous, non-household waste
such as radioactive materials, biological waste and bulky items
like refrigerators and washing machines. According to the EHS
office, as the collection site is designed to serve individual
households only, it forbids commercial drop-offs.

The response to the program has been encouraging, with a
moderate flow of users utilizing the service. While the City of Los
Angeles is responsible for most of the promotion of the newly built
facility, the EHS office has sent e-mails and notices to inform
environmental organizations about the new project, Dowling
said.

Two full-time workers are working at the site, and a third will
be added next week. Dowling said the project is still in the
initial stage and the EHS office wants to expand the capacity of
the service gradually, as the collection center will not be able to
handle a large flux of people dropping off large amounts of waste
at the same time.

The site is currently operating Thursdays, Fridays and
Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.