If you want to responsibly to get rid of household hazardous waste, you’re going to have to do a better job of planning.
Polk County announced it is cutting back the hours of the dropoff at the North Central Landfill to Fridays and Saturdays.
It was formerly allowed during most weekdays and Saturday.
The purpose of the dropoff facility to encourage residents to dispose of their used oil, pesticides, solvents and other hazardous chemicals here rather than putting them in your garbage cart or dumping them in your yard or along a roadside and contaminate drinking water.
Instead, there will be dropoff days scheduled around the county in hopes of encouraging responsible disposal.
The press release didn’t reveal what the reasons for the change, but the back story is that during a recent work session commissioners discussed the alleged need to reduce traffic to the dropoff facility to reduce conflicts with a planned book-in facility planned by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office that will be developed next to the animal control facility near the landfill entrance.
The dropoff schedule and locations, all of them from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. are: Oct. 27, Barow High School; Dec. 1, Chain ‘O Lakes Complex, Winter Haven; Feb. 9, Lakeland Solid Waste Department; March 2, Haines City Public Works Complex.