Residents Rid More Than 14 Tons of Hazardous Waste at Town Event

Residents disposed of nearly 14 tons of hazardous waste at the town of Smithtown’s Hazardous Waste Event held on October 1.

The town offers the event twice yearly, one in October and one in April and is conducted by an outside agency, which costs the town on average about $20k, according to Russell Barnett, Director of

The town says that the goals of the event are two fold; collecting hazardous residential waste and heightening awareness around the use of buying and using hazardous materials.

“People sometimes lose site of the fact that these events are supposed to do two things; get rid of and dispose of waste but also increase awareness and encourage residents to look for non-hazardous products,” said Barnett.

As far as further educating the public about alternative products, Barnett says the town has literature that they distribute year round including a disposal guide that is sent to homeowners annually.

According to Barnett, the town has no plans to increase the amount of events.

“Right now we are staying with the two,” said Barnett. “The 2012 budget was just released and Supervisor Vecchio is proposing two events next year.”

The Town of Islip cited storage and safety concerns as reasons they offer the service to residents year round.

“I don’t see a big need for more than twice a year,” said Anthony Leteri, owner of in Kings Park. “You have to keep it in a secure location if you are going to do a regular drop off. That is what I like about the town of Smithtown. It is an event; waste gets loaded in and loaded out. You don’t have to worry about storing it,” he said.

Barnett said the event was the biggest to date and says the town will continue to evaluate need versus convenience.

“Seeing how many people come in and how much material comes in, we will continue to monitor it and next October we will look at it again,” said Barnett.