Expansion of Wake County’s HHW Program at Reduced Costs

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

Since the mid 1990’s Wake County has collected potentially hazardous household materials for appropriate recycling and disposal through our Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) program. Initially this program consisted of providing a staffed drop-off facility two days a month at a location adjacent to a County owned landfill and convenience center. After a few years it changed to being located at two separate facilities for better coverage across the county, but still for only a total of two days a month. During the early 2000’s County staff began to recognize that there were a number of inefficiencies regarding the collection process due to the limited time for drop off of materials. Issues such as long wait times (and associated complaints), traffic issues on adjacent roadways due to back-ups, safety concerns and the general chaotic nature of the event lead staff to begin to evaluate new ideas. After conducting a two month pilot study in late 2008, the County implemented a six day a week collection of HHW at two locations in July of 2009. Through implementation of this expanded program the county was not only able to increase the collection frequency significantly and increase the volume of materials collected, but in the process were able to significantly reduce the costs per customer of the service.