Community Cleanout to help eliminate hazardous waste, other difficult materials

The City of Lawton is organizing a Community Cleanout Saturday to help residents dispose of hazardous waste and other materials that shouldn’t be tossed into the trash.

The project was designed around the fact that some residents may not have the means to haul items to the landfill on their own, meaning they might have to hold onto things until April’s annual Trash Off cleanup campaign, said Cam Huynh, stormwater inspector for the City of Lawton. Huynh said what really got the ball rolling was a call from a resident in Fall 2023 who needed to know how to dispose of an item.

“My answer was for him to take it to the landfill himself, or hang onto it until April and that just didn’t sit right with me,” he said, adding that was the spark for restoring a Fall cleanup campaign.

Other things came together. Huynh said a household hazardous waste collection is something the city’s stormwater division wanted to do, but disposal is costly. That problem was solved with a grant from the Department of Environmental Quality, which will let Lawton collect hazardous household waste, as well as items ranging from tires to household appliances.

“We wanted this event to focus more on household hazardous waste, versus bulk trash like Trash Off, because ultimately, anything kept out of the landfill is great due to landfills have a finite space,” he said.

Hazardous household items is especially important to stormwater management.

“Because some folks know they can’t put these materials in their trash, they unfortunately end up getting dumped down storm drains, which some still do not know lead straight to local waterways,” he said.

Huynh said the Saturday’s event is different than Trash Off because while some items — such as batteries —are accepted at Trash Off, many liquid wastes are not. But, not all liquids qualify. Saturday’s event won’t accept latex paint, Huynh said, adding the best way to dispose of such paint is let the paint dry out, then place the can with regular trash.

Huynh said he isn’t really limiting the amount of items that residents may dispose of, but he is excluding commercial waste because the emphasis is on households, not businesses.

Liquid in their original container is best, but if that isn’t possible, residents should label the items. Liquids should not be mixed, and residents should transport such items in their vehicle’s trunk, packed carefully to prevent spills or breaks.