By Kellen Olshefski
Staff Writer
The 2012 Walworth County Clean Sweep program attracted a steady stream of residents looking to properly dispose of more than 17 tons of household hazardous waste products and old meds.
A total of 750 participant surveys were completed during the two-day event held on Oct. 5 and 6.
This number represents 854 households that were served by the program. More than 972 pounds of old meds and 34,113 pounds of household hazardous waste material were collected during the event. It is essential that waste like this is collected correctly to ensure that contamination is significantly reduced. It is important that the right disposal method is used, whether that be in the form of contamination bags or something bigger like utilizing a skip bins sutherland shire company, for example, so everything is removed securely and contained.
According to Janet Kline of the Walworth County Department of Public Works, turnout was less than last year, but only slightly behind last year’s record-setting numbers.
About 685 gallons of used motor oil, 330 gallons of antifreeze, 90 vehicle batteries and 290 pounds of rechargeable batteries were also collected at Clean Sweep and recycled by local vendors.
The program provided 250 gallons of the used motor oil collected to the Public Works Department for the waste oil furnace that heats the maintenance shop.
According to Kline, hazardous waste vendors properly collect the waste from the event and dispose it through various means such as incineration, secure landfills and recycling.
Kline said the increased population in the county since the program began in 1992 contributes to the success of the program.
“We went from probably 75,000 to 102,000 in our county,” she said. “We have an increased need because there’s just more people in the area.”
This year’s Clean Sweep program provided three collection sites.
The primary collection site was at the Walworth County Public Works Department.
Satellite collection sites were provided at the City of Whitewater Public Works Complex and Town of Linn Municipal Garage in Zenda.
Survey data collected from program participants shows the event served residents from every township, village and city in Walworth County.
According to Kline, county residents are pleased with the program, which also adds to its success.
“This is one of the programs they’re actually really happy about, it’s a service they’re happy to receive. Some people say they wish we could hold this two times a year,” she said.
“We do not have an ongoing collection or drop off going in the county, that’s why it’s so successful.”
Walworth County and Jefferson County had created a Memorandum of Understanding to allow household residents from Jefferson County municipalities to bring hazardous waste and old meds to the Whitewater collection site on a charge-back basis.
The purpose of this agreement was to provide expanded services to household residents, increase administrative efficiencies, and spread out the fixed costs for hazardous waste vendor staffing and mobilization.
Aurora Health Care pharmacy staff identified and sorted the old meds brought in by program participants at each collection site.
Personnel from the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office, City of Whitewater Police Department and Town of Linn Police Department provided law enforcement oversight as required by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
Kline said the program costs approximately $60,000 annually to run, $6,500 of which is spent on publicity to make sure county residents are aware of the dates of the event.
State grant funds, financial contributions from satellite collection site municipalities, and tipping fees received from the Mallard Ridge Landfill via the Town of Darien covered the costs associated with this year’s event.
