The Northern Kentucky (NKY) Household Hazardous Waste Action Coalition is comprised of Boone, Campbell, and Kenton County Solid Waste Departments, Sanitation District NO. 1, the cities of Covington and Florence, and the U.K., Campbell County Cooperative Extension Service. The coalition receives grants annually from the Kentucky Division of Waste Management to conduct Household Hazardous Waste Collection Events. 

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 (HHW) 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 coalition members plan, recruit volunteers, conduct, and evaluate annual HHW collection events. www.nkyhhw.org is utilized to educate the community about household hazardous waste and provides collection event details.

2556 NKY residents participated, including 375 people from Campbell County, in the collection event held on Nov. 4, 2023, at the Florence Y’alls baseball stadium in Florence, KY. 

209 volunteers and workers supported the event. The Campbell County Extension Agent for Natural Resources and Environmental Management was able to recruit 22 students from Highland High School (Fort Thomas, KY) to help this year.

Disposal and recycling vendors (Environmental Enterprises, Inc., and Tri State Escrap) report collecting:

• 103,273 lbs. electronics 
• 9369 lbs. cleaners and aerosols 
• 109,827 lbs. paint and adhesives 
• 8356 lbs. pesticides and poisons 
• 15,707 lbs. batteries
• 44,304 lbs. flammables and fuels 
• 9325 lbs. propane cylinders and tanks 
• 2328 lbs. light bulbs 

23,314 people including 3719 Campbell County residents have properly disposed of household hazardous waste for free in these events since 2015. Before the Campbell County Extension Service 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 doubled in that time.

State funding has increased since Campbell County Extension became involved in 2015. Since 2015, the KY Division of Waste Management has provided over $950,000 in grant funds to the coalition for these events.

The County Extension Agent for Natural Resources and Environmental Management requested the Extension District Board contribute funds to support paint disposal that is not covered by the grant with a pledge to help increase Campbell County participation and volunteerism at the events in 2015. Since then, the board has funded nine annual events investing $45,000.