For the 13th year, industries in St. James, St. John the Baptist and St. Charles parishes will host the annual Household Hazardous Materials Collection Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 9.

The goal of this event is to provide households an opportunity to properly dispose or recycle materials that are inappropriate for curbside pickup.

Bob Harris, an event coordinator for the industry sponsors with Marathon Petroleum said, “We urge everyone to take advantage of this opportunity. Clean out hazardous materials from your utility rooms and sheds now so you can easily and properly dispose of these wastes on April 9.”

Lynette Currier, an event coordinator with OxyChem, added, “This year, we are accepting used electronics including televisions, computer monitors and radios. Although other recycling opportunities are available in our communities, we want to give residents an opportunity to properly dispose of these items.”

Also in 2011, the event will offer two convenient sites for residents to bring household hazardous materials for proper disposal and/or recycling. The collection locations are in Luling in St. Charles Parish and in LaPlace in St. John the Baptist Parish.

In St. Charles Parish, the collection location is on the west bank in Luling at the School Board Office parking lot, located at 13855 River Road. The St. John location is in at Plaza LaPlace Shopping Center, located at 1921 Airline Highway in LaPlace, known as the New Wine Ministries parking lot.

With approval from Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, this event is financially sponsored and staffed with volunteers by the following companies as a community service: Air Liquide, Air Products, ArcelorMittal (formerly Bayou Steel), Cornerstone Chemical Company (formerly Cytec), DuPont, DuPont Performance Elastomers, Entergy, Evonik Industries, Galata Chemicals (formerly Chemtura), Marathon Petroleum Company, Momentive (formerly Hexion), Monsanto, Motiva, Nalco, Noranda, OxyChem, Shell and Valero.

Harris explained, “We are looking forward to collecting household hazardous materials from our community again this year. At last year’s Household Hazardous Materials Collection event, with 70 volunteers, we collected over 19 tons of potentially harmful materials and prepared them for recycling, recovery, treatment or disposal, which did not include used electronics. Three hundred fifty-eight resident vehicles visited the one collection site.”

Materials which will be accepted include 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, used computers and electronics. We cannot accept explosives, ammunition, infectious medical wastes, unidentifiable materials, compressed gas cylinders, radioactive wastes (smoke alarms), asbestos, high school lab wastes or commercial/governmental facility waste, including in-home business waste.

If you have any questions or would like additional information, please send an email to the Household Hazardous Materials Collection Day hotline at hotline@hhmcd.com and visit www. hhmcd.com.