Household Hazardous Waste

The next La Plata County/City of Durango  Household Hazardous Waste Event will be in 2024.
More details will be posted here as we get closer to the date.

The City of Durango and La Plata County hosted a household hazardous waste event in 2022. The event took place at the La Plata County Fairgrounds located at 2500 Main Ave. on September 19th 2020.  Please note that we listened to your comments and plan to hold this event every other year.

If you still have items that you were not able to dispose of, there are opportunities with paint and oil locally:
Latex Paint: drop off at Kroegers Ace Hardware, Sherwin-Williams, Colors Inc and Lewis True Value in Bayfield
Oils: contact local companies that sell oil to see if they will accept used oil

Reducing HHW in Your Home

  • Check the ingredients of products before bringing them into your home - consider reducing your purchase of products that contain hazardous ingredients
  • When shopping for household cleaning supplies and pest control, consider buying environmentally friendly, natural products - use the EPA Safer Choice guidelines to help identify safer products
  • Try out simple recipes you can use to create your own natural and effective cleaning products at home
  • If you do need to purchase a product containing hazardous substances, buy only as much as you need and either use it up yourself or offer to friends and family who can make use of what you don’t.

Safe Management of HHW

  • DO NOT pour hazardous substances down the drain or in the toilet, on the ground or in the storm drain
  • Always store hazardous substances safely in their original containers. Never store hazardous products in food containers
  • Never mix hazardous substances with other products. Incompatible products might react, ignite, or explode and contaminated HHW may be unrecyclable
  • Follow package instructions for use, storage and disposal.

HHW Disposal

Find out how to responsibly dispose of almost anything using the DurangoRecycles.com "What Goes Where?" tool.

Latex Paint Recycling

Colorado’s Paint Stewardship Law benefits household hazardous waste programs. A new law passed in June 2014 requires paint manufacturers to establish a paint stewardship program in Colorado. Household hazardous waste (HHW) programs that participate can save money on paint management costs. Program funding comes from a "PaintCare Recovery Fee" applied to each container of architectural paint sold in Colorado when the program began on July 1, 2015. For more information visit: Colorado Paint Stewardship Program Fact Sheet (PDF)