500-plus residents dispose of household hazardous waste, old tires at county collection

Photos by Tom Rivers: Employees from Environmental Enterprises, Inc. of Cincinnati work at a household hazardous waste collection today in Albion. The county has contracted with EEI to remove household hazardous waste for more than a decade.

ALBION – More than 500 Orleans County were able to get rid of leftover chemicals, batteries, tires, oil and solvents today during the household hazardous waste collection day.

EEI employees are at the solvent station where oil, anti-freeze and solvents are collected.

The county typically pays the company about $18,000 to collect and remove the household hazardous waste, with the state then reimbursing the county about half of the costs.

The collection continues to be in demand by local residents. There are 600 spots available and county officials said about 90 percent of the time slots were claimed.

Corey Winters, director of Orleans County Planning and Development, said the demand doesn’t seem to be slowing down for the annual collection. He expects it will continue again next year.

There seemed to be a lot of fluorescent bulbs and propane tanks today, as well as the usual oils, pesticide and random chemicals, Winters said.

 Orleans County Public Works Department employees remove tires from the back of a van. They were expected 4,000 to 5,000 tires by the end of the day. Some of that big pile came from other municipalities which brought dump trucks full of them that had be collected in the past year.

The DPW workers include James Camp Jr., Cal Stinson Jr., Vinny Zona and Andy Beach.

Corey Winters of Planning and Development helped collect the tires today.