Overton Hazardous Waste Event Saturday

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will host a household hazardous waste collection service in Livingston Saturday.

County Executive Steven Barlow said the service will allow citizens to properly throw away corrosive, flammable, and toxic household waste. Barlow said the county tries to have this service every year.

“This is basically we try to do this for everybody that has a build-up of these items and don’t know how to get rid of them,” Barlow said. “They set up once a year and sometimes twice a year over at our fairgrounds and do this take-back stuff.”

Barlow said TDEC requests that people do not bring medical waste, infectious waste, explosives, ammunition, and radioactive waste including smoke detectors. Barlow said with Overton County being only one of three locations in the state, TDEC has encouraged all Upper Cumberland residents to participate.

“We have a good relationship with them,” Barlow said. “It’s just we set up with them yearly, so it’s sponsored by TDEC, but I really don’t have an explanation as to why they chose us other than having a good relationship with them and it’s a good place to be.”

Barlow said Overton County does not have a big problem with household hazardous waste being thrown away improperly. Barlow said he compares it to a preventative measure instead of addressing an issue.

“We watch for this stuff just to make sure nobody is throwing this stuff away,” Barlow said. “But mostly everybody knows not to throw this stuff away into the dump. Mostly everybody has been pretty good about this.”

Barlow said many of the household hazardous waste items can cause problems for a landfill. Barlow said TDEC does not allow the county to take household hazardous waste to its landfill. Barlow said there are only a few landfills in the state of Tennessee that can accept hazardous waste materials.

Barlow said the drop-off is free for residents. The event will be at the Overton County Fairgrounds, Saturday 8am to Noon.