The Kentucky Community Assessment indicated that Campbell County residents desire less illegal dumping and littering in their community.  Many items that are illegally dumped are household hazardous wastes that cannot be disposed of in landfills.  According to the EPA, the average household generates more than 20 pounds of these wastes per year.  Products, such as paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides contain hazardous ingredients that can catch fire, react, or explode under certain circumstances, or that are corrosive, and toxic require special care when you dispose of them.

The Campbell County Extension Agent for Natural Resources and Environmental Management serves on the Northern Kentucky (NKY) Household Hazardous Waste Action Coalition that is comprised of Boone, Campbell, and Kenton County Solid Waste Departments, Sanitation District NO. 1, and the cities of Covington and Florence.  The coalition received a $124,000 grant from the Kentucky Division of Waste Management to conduct a Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event on Nov. 5, 2022, at the Florence Y’alls baseball stadium in Florence, KY. 

The coalition members plan, recruit volunteers, conduct, and evaluate this yearly event.  www.nkyhhw.org is utilized to educate the community about household hazardous waste and provides collection event details.  Extension specifically marketed the event through social media and clubs. 22 volunteers from Campbell County and the Extension Agent worked at the event.

2661 NKY residents participated, including 383 people from Campbell County.  Disposal and recycling vendors (Environmental Enterprises, Inc., and Tri State Escrap) reported collecting 287,253 pounds of household hazardous waste at this year’s event. Including:

• 117,464 lbs. electronics (7.2% increase from 2021)
• 8253 lbs. cleaners and aerosols (9.7% increase from ‘21)
• 97,118 lbs. paint and adhesives (13.1% increase from ‘21 
• 7788 lbs. pesticides and poisons (11.7% increase from ’21)
• 14,736 lbs. batteries (14.2% increase from ’21)
• 27,863 lbs. corrosives, flammables, and fuels (23.1% increase from ’21)
• 11,017 lbs. propane cylinders and tanks (29.3% increase from ’21)
• 3,014 lbs. light bulbs (9.3% increase from ’21)

20,758 people including 3344 Campbell County residents have properly disposed of household hazardous waste for free due to these events since 2015. Before Campbell County Extension became involved that year, participation averaged about 1400 people annually.  Since then, average participation is about 2600 people yearly (an increase of 1200 people). Campbell County participation has essentially doubled in that time frame.

State funding has increased since Campbell County Extension became involved in 2015.  In reference to state funding levels, the Boone County Solid Waste Coordinator indicates, “as you can see, there was a big spike from 2015 to 2017”.  Since 2015, $834,545 in KY Division of Waste Management funds have been awarded to conduct these events.

The County Extension Agent for Natural Resources and Environmental Management requested the Extension District Board to contribute funds to support paint disposal and to help increase Campbell County participation and volunteerism at the events in 2015. Since then, the board has funded eight annual events investing $40,000.  For the past two years, the Extension Agent has partnered with the Campbell County Solid Waste Coordinator to distribute paint hardeners. Nearly 700 packets that will hardener 700 gallons of paint for traditional landfill disposal have been distributed to county residents.