Recently, the 13th Household Hazardous Materials Collection Day was held in Luling and LaPlace. This event has been held annually since 1998, and its purpose is to provide area households an opportunity to properly dispose or recycle materials that are inappropriate for curbside pickup. Materials such as solvents, poisons, used oil, electronics and corrosives require special handling to minimize safety and environmental impact.

Eighteen area manufacturers sponsored the event, providing funding and volunteers. Of the 43,125 pounds of materials collected, 93 percent was recycled or recovered. Of this amount, 5,000 pounds was batteries and 6,000 pounds was used oil. Used electronics accounted for 12,600 pounds. The two sites this year included assistance from 79 volunteers who serviced drop-offs from 394 vehicles, which is 36 more vehicles than last year’s event.

With approval from Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and support from St. Charles Parish, St. John the Baptist Parish Council, St. James Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness and St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office, this event was sponsored by the following companies as a community service: Air Liquide, Air Products, ArcelorMittal (formerly Bayou Steel), Galata Chemicals LLC (formerly Chemtura), Cornerstone Chemical Company (formerly Cytec Industries), DuPont, DuPont Performance Polymers, Entergy, Evonik Stockhausen, LLC, Marathon Petroleum Company LP, Momentive (formerly Hexion Specialty Chemicals), Monsanto, Motiva Enterprises, Nalco, Noranda (in St. James Parish), OxyChem, Shell and Valero. Other organizations which provided volunteers, support services and/or recycling were: COLT, Inc., FCC Environmental, The Green Project, Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry, New Wine Christian Fellowship, Philip Services Corporation, Positive Results, Inc. and St. Charles Parish School Board. LEI – Lamp Environmental Industries and Philip Reclamation Services provided waste and recycling professional services.