LAPLACE — For the 19th consecutive year, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parish industries will host the annual Household Hazardous Materials Collection Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 29.

St. James Parish, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and Louisiana Department of Agriculture &  Forestry are also supporting the event.

The goal of this event is to provide households an opportunity to properly dispose or recycle materials that are inappropriate for curbside pickup. Jay Lambremont and Lance Traylor, both with Marathon Petroleum Company, and Lynette Currier with OxyChem – Taft are the event coordinators for local industries sponsoring the event.

“Please mark your calendar and plan to attend this annual event,” Currier said. “We have two drop-off locations: one in St. Charles Parish on the east bank in Destrehan and another in St. John the Baptist Parish in LaPlace. We urge everyone to take advantage of this opportunity. Please clean out hazardous materials from your garage, utility room or shed and properly dispose of these wastes on April 29 at one of these two available sites.”

The collection locations are in St. John the Baptist Parish at the Plaza LaPlace Shopping Center at 1921 Airline Highway in LaPlace, known as the New Wine Ministries parking lot, next to the under-construction Pelican Pointe car wash and in St. Charles in Destrehan at the Jerusalem Shriners Hall AAONMS, located at 1940 Ormond Boulevard.

“We are looking forward to collecting household hazardous materials from our community again this year,” Traylor said. “Please visit the event website for event details and ongoing recycling opportunities at www.hhmcd.com. At last year’s Household Hazardous Materials Collection event, with 92 volunteers, we collected over 38 tons of potentially harmful materials and prepared them for recycling, recovery, treatment or disposal. We unloaded materials from 490 vehicles at both locations.”

According to statistics gathered, the largest recycling category was 17,724 pounds of used electronics and 11,866 pounds of paint was collected to be recycled.

There is a limit of five tires per vehicle.

“This year, as an added incentive for resident participation, each vehicle bringing materials to either site, Pelican Pointe car wash will donate a one-time Platinum car wash, valid for one premium wash at any of the Pelican Pointe car wash locations,” Lambremont said. “They are also donating one wash to each volunteer.”

Those with questions can email hotline@hhmcd.com.

The following household hazardous materials will be accepted and properly disposed of or recycled: oil-based paint, latex paint, solvents, tires (limit five per vehicle and one delivery only), automotive and other rechargeable batteries, household cleaning products, acids/bases, used oil, antifreeze, aerosol cans, fluorescent lamps, pesticides, herbicides, scrap metal, major appliances and used electronics, such as used computers, copiers, printers, radios, TVs and other electronic devices.

Things that CANNOT be accepted are explosives, ammunition, infectious medical wastes, unidentifiable materials, compressed gas cylinders (including propane tanks), radioactive wastes (smoke alarms), asbestos, high school lab wastes or commercial/governmental facility waste.