Lower turnout for Hoover's 2021 Household Hazardous Waste Day

Turnout for Hoover’s 2021 Household Hazardous Waste Day was less than last year, and there were no long lines and extended waits this past weekend, organizers said.

There were 1,292 vehicles that dropped items off at the Hoover Public Safety Center Saturday, said Robin Mangino, the administrative services supervisor for the Hoover Public Works and Park Maintenance department.

Last year, there were an estimated 1,550 vehicles that brought items to dispose, plus a couple of hundred vehicles that had to be turned away because all the containers to collect the items were full and the event had already stretched an hour past closing time, Mangino said.

She guessed the lower turnout this year was due to the new location.

The city moved the event to the Hoover Public Safety Center this year because traffic was problematic at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex last year and there were soccer, basketball and baseball tournaments happening at the complex this past weekend and most other weekends this spring.

If traffic was a problem again this year, organizers had planned to stage vehicles in the front parking lot of the Public Safety Center, but they never had to do that, Mangino said. The times that people brought items were more spread out, perhaps thanks to the city extending the closing time of the event from noon to 2 p.m., she said.

“We were real pleased with the way traffic went. We didn’t have any backups or issues,” Mangino said. “It will be here [at the Public Safety Center] next year.”

MXI Environmental, the company hired by the city to safely dispose of the items collected, has not completed its inventory of the items collected Saturday, but the city did get a count on some of the items city personnel handled, Mangino said.

That included 680 gallons of motor oil, 150 gallons of cooking oil, 262 tires, 85 car batteries and 51 flags, she said.

The Hoover Police Department collected 32 boxes of prescription drugs and other medication totaling 590 pounds, as well as five rifles, four handguns, four boxes of ammunition, some fireworks and an airbag, Officer Brian Hale said. Two of the rifles could be from the World War II era, but that is still being researched, Hale said.

The Foundry Rescue and Recovery Center also collected about 3½ truckloads of equipment such as TV sets, computer equipment and small appliances such as toaster ovens and coffee makers, Mangino said.

A more detailed list of items collected will come from MXI Environmental later, she said.

The event is designed to give Hoover residents a chance to properly dispose of items that shouldn’t go in the garbage or landfills.

Examples of items accepted included leftover wet paint, automotive fluids, household cleaners, pesticides, batteries, standard-size tires, electronics, medication, guns and ammunition.

This article was updated at 8:39 a.m. on April 21 with additional information on what the Hoover Police Department collected.