HazWagon

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

The “HazWagon” is a mobile household hazardous waste (HHW) and electronics collection program that is a direct result of resident feedback. New Hanover County has operated a permanent HHW and electronics recycling facility since May of 2013. While residents were very pleased with the services this program offered, numerous surveys indicated that its location was not convenient to the majority of the county’s population. The goal of the HazWagon program is to provide a convenient solution for recycling toxic, reactive, corrosive, or flammable materials at no charge to the residents of the county. The HazWagon, which is a specially configured high-roof utility van towing a 16-foot trailer, sets up one day per week in three different locations in the county. Each of these locations were sited to serve dense population centers that would normally have to travel 40 minutes (or more) round-trip to the permanent HHW facility. In the first partial month of operation (7 operating days), the HazWagon collected over 8 tons of HHW and electronics and served nearly 350 residents. It is worth noting that during that same time frame, the traffic at the permanent facility did not decrease, which indicates that the HazWagon program was meeting the goal of making the service more convenient and responsive to resident’s needs. On average, 46-50 New Hanover County residents use the HazWagon per day at each location, and an average of 1.3 tons are collected per day at each location.