The safe disposal of hazardous household waste (HHW) and unwanted electronic equipment helps to prevent the release of dangerous, toxic substances into the environment and prevents harm and injury to DPW workers. For more information on residential special waste, visit the District's Zero Waste page.
DPW's Special Waste Collection Events
- •Thursday, September 19th from 10am to 2pm @ Anacostia Skate Park Saturday,
- •September 21st from 8am to 2pm @ Carter Barron Tennis Center
The Special Waste Collection event may be delayed or canceled due to inclement weather. Please check twitter.com/dczerowaste or twitter.com/DCDPW for the most up-to-date information.
Medicine, Needles, & Sharps Require Special Treatment
Handling household hazardous wastes such as medicine, needles, and sharps with care is important. These items should not be disposed of in the regular waste disposal methods. To find out how to dispose of them properly, visit the Zero Waste website and use the "What Goes Where?" tool. For medication drop-off options, search for "medications," and for proper disposal of needles and sharps, search for "sharps." Local pharmacies may have drop-off boxes for medication.
- Needles & Sharps (syringes used for diabetic injections): The improper disposal of contaminated sharps is a serious safety concern for garbage collectors and landfill workers.
- Medicine (Do not pour medications down the sink or flush down the toilet.): Empty pill bottles are recyclable after removing personal information and labels from the bottle.
Acceptable and Unacceptable Household Hazardous Waste Items
Acceptable
- Aerosol
- Ant poisons
- Antifreeze
- Asbestos
- Auto fluids – brake, transmission
- Bleach
- Compressed fluorescent lamps
- Cooking Oil
- Drain decloggers
- Expired License Plate
- Fire extinguishers (household sizes)
- Flammable adhesives
- Flammable waxes and abrasives
- Fluorescent lights, u-shape, and circular
- Fluorescent tubes 4 feet or less
- Household batteries – tape terminals of lithium-based and batteries greater than 9 volts
- Household cleaning products
- Insecticides
- Lawn or garden products
- LED lights
- Lights of all types
- Mercury
- Mercury thermometers
- Motor oil
- Paints, latex (Latex paint can be recycled through the PaintCare program. Check PaintCare for the closest drop-off location and one-day event)
- Paints, oil-based
- Pet flea control
- Photographic chemicals
- Pool and spa chemicals
- Propane tanks, no larger than 20 lbs.
- Rodent poisons
- Stains, lacquers, varnishes
- Thinners, mineral spirits
Unacceptable Household Hazardous Waste Items
- Air conditioners (Call 311 for a bulk trash collection appointment.)
- Ammunition (Take to the closest police station.)
- Explosives (Take to the closest police station.)
- Tires (Up to four tires may be taken to the Fort Totten Transfer Station during regular business hours)
Document Shredding
Residents may bring up to five, medium-sized boxes (approximately 20” x 14” x 14”) of personal documents to be shredded. Only paper (staples, paper and binder clips on the paper are okay) and credit cards will be accepted. Note: No business or commercial material will be accepted.
Acceptable:
- Up to 5 boxes (approximately 20"x14"x14") of personal documents
- Personal documents with (All staples, rubber bands, paper clips, even black “alligator clips” are acceptable)
- Credit cards (no more than 10 credit cards per vehicle)
Unacceptable:
- Business or commercial material
- More than 5 boxes of documents per visit per resident
Acceptable Electronics
- Audio-visual equipment
- Audio cassettes
- Camcorders
- Carbon monoxide detectors
- CD Rom drives, CDs, and DVDs
- Cell Phones
- Computers and monitors
- Connectors / Cords / Wire
- Copy machines
- Fax machines
- Floppy drives
- Hard drives
- Memory chips
- Network / Video / Sound cards
- Pagers
- PDAs (e.g. Palm Pilots)
- Power supplies
- Printers
- Scrap computer plastic
- Scrap computer metal
- Smart Phones
- Smoke detectors
- Tablet computers
- Tape drives & media
- TVs
- VCRs
- VCR tapes
- Video games & Software
*To safely dispose of batteries with lithium or batteries of greater than 9 volts, put clear, masking, or electrical tape on the batteries’ terminals or sandwich the batteries between two layers of tape (e.g. flat button cells). These batteries should be placed in a container separate from other batteries that don’t require being taped.