Hazardous Waste

The City's Household Hazardous Waste Program cannot accept:

1. Asbestos (including linoleum tiles containing asbestos from older homes)
2. Explosives
3. Ammunition
4. Commercial Chemicals or Commercial Quantities (Business Waste)
5. Bio-Waste (Medical Waste)
6. Sharps (needles)

Due to the possible health risks associated with handling materials containing asbestos (such as linoleum tiles), please consult the Air Pollution Control Division Asbestos Unit to learn more about safe handling and disposal for asbestos. State of Colorado info on asbestos removal and disposal or 303-692-3150.

Never place these materials in your trash or recycling.  Contact your local Fire or Police Department on how to safely dispose of these items.

Due to the possible health risks associated with handling materials containing asbestos (such as linoleum tiles), please consult the Air Pollution Control Division Asbestos Unit to learn more about safe handling and disposal for asbestos.

State of Colorado info on asbestos removal and disposal or 303-692-3150.

Soiled bandages, dressings, and disposable sheets should be placed in securely fastened plastic bags before being placed in your regular trash. Trash containing these potentially infectious wastes should be stored out of the reach of children and pets until it can be picked up by your trash disposal service or taken to the landfill.

Mercury spills can be very hazardous and should be cleaned up as soon as possible. Mercury will vaporize slowly over time and can expose your family to toxic fumes for a very long time if not thoroughly cleaned up.  Click here to find out how to safely clean it up.

Mercury spills can be very hazardous and should be cleaned up as soon as possible. Mercury will vaporize slowly over time and can expose your family to toxic fumes for a very long time if not thoroughly cleaned up.

Click here for the "Broken Thermometer Cleanup Guidance for Households" from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and fluorescent tubes are serious energy savers and environmentally preferred.  However, while safe and efficient to operate, CFLs and fluorescent tubes contain trace amounts of mercury, so when thrown in the trash or broken, they can potentially harm the environment, human health, and especially trash collectors. The good news is that fluorescent lights are 100 percent recyclable and safe for public use when disposed of properly. So be sure to recycle your burned out CFLs.

Xcel Energy and Ace Hardware stores have partnered to recycle CFL bulbs. Drop off your compact "curly cue" fluorescent bulbs and mercury-containing thermostats for free at any Ace Hardware Store in Colorado.

Home Depot and Lowe's home improvement stores are also accepting CFL bulbs as part of a national program.

Please note that Ace Hardware and Home Depot stores are not accepting long fluorescent tubes and the program is intended for residential use only.

**Call ahead to your local store to confirm that these programs are still in place.**

Still no luck? Check out our E-cycle Coupon program for a discounted rate to recycle your bulbs with our electronics processor, Blue Star Recyclers. 

Most fire extinguishers are rechargeable. Having a fire extinguisher refilled and checked is often significantly less expensive than the cost of a new unit. There are several local private companies that can provide this service for you.

Since the contents of a fire extinguisher are under pressure (and typically corrosive), old fire extinguishers should not be disposed of in the trash. Full or full or partially full fire extinguishers contain materials that could be environmentally hazardous, so it’s important that you take them to a facility that can process them. When you dispose of your fire extinguisher, squeeze the trigger and let a little bit of extinguishing agent out (the goal here is not to empty the fire extinguisher slowly, but instead to let the pressure out). Wait until the needle on the pressure gauge falls to zero (this could take a few hours to a few days), then take it to a hazardous waste center. They should be able to recycle both the extinguishant and the shell.

Disposing of an empty fire extinguisher is a little bit easier than disposing of a full one. The first thing you should do is squeeze the handle to make sure as much of the extinguishing agent as possible gets discharged. Next, remove the head from your fire extinguisher – this will let anyone who sees it know that it has been fully discharged. Finally, recycle the steel fire extinguisher shell at a local scrap metal recycling centers.

Colorado Medication Take-Back Pilot Project is a network of secure boxes for the collection of unused and unwanted household medications such as prescribed medications, over-the-counter medications and controlled substances. Please follow link to find a location near you. 

Flushing even small quantities of household medicines down the drain is discouraged. Some medicines can disrupt or destroy the useful microorganisms in the sewage treatment system and/or may pass through the system intact and potentially contaminate downstream water resources.

Never place full or partially full spray cans into your trash or recycling.  This could result in the accidental exposure to collection workers or recycling processors.

Self Disposal:  You may dispose of your expired sprays yourself. Take the spray container to an outside area well away from human use areas. Direct spray down-wind and toward the ground and press and hold the trigger valve until all of the pressure is released. Surgical gloves and a respirator will reduce the chances of accidental exposure to the spray while you are emptying it. Do not empty spray in human use areas. After emptying the can, securely wrap the container in several layers of newspaper, then place in a sealed plastic bag and discard in the trash so that collection workers or recycling processors are not exposed to even a low level of spray residue.

While in use, rechargeable batteries are safe, but once they no longer work, they must be properly recycled. If trashed, rechargeable batteries can potentially be hazardous to the environment because of the heavy metals they contain, such as nickel, cadmium, lithium and lead.

Recycling your rechargeable batteries is EASY and FREE. Retail stores, such as Batteries Plus, Radio Shack, Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart and many others, accept rechargeable batteries for recycling. To find a convenient rechargeable battery drop-off location visit the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) online at call2recycle.org or call their hotline at 1-800-8-BATTERY.

As a result of the convenient program set up by the RBRC, so far this year more than 7.5 million pounds of rechargeable batteries have been recycled.  And, recycling rechargeable batteries is a great example of a closed loop process because most of the metals and plastic from spent batteries is used to make new batteries.

Still no luck? Check out our E-cycle Coupon program for a discounted rate to recycle your bulbs with our electronics processor, Blue Star Recyclers.

To find out where you can recycle batteries and a wide range of other materials locally, visit denvergov.org/recycling.

• Interior and exterior architectural paints: latex, acrylic, water-based, alkyd, oil-based, enamel (including textured coatings)
• Deck coatings, floor paints (including elastomeric)
• Primers, sealers, undercoaters
• Stains
• Shellacs, lacquers, varnishes, urethanes (single component)
• Waterproofing concrete/masonry/wood sealers and repellents (not tar or bitumen-based)
• Metal coatings, rust preventatives
• Field and lawn paints

*These products above do have fees when purchased

• Paint thinners, mineral spirits, solvents
• Aerosol paints (spray cans)
• Auto and marine paints
• Art and craft paints
• Caulking compounds, epoxies, glues, adhesives
• Paint additives, colorants, tints, resins
• Wood preservatives (containing pesticides)
• Roof patch and repair
• Asphalt, tar and bitumen-based products
• 2-component coatings
• Deck cleaners
• Traffic and road marking paints
• Industrial Maintenance (IM) coatings
• Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) (shop application) paints and finishes 

 *The products listed above do not have fees when purchased