Pollution Prevention Tips

The following are tips for eliminating toxic chemicals and properly disposing of harmful materials.

Household cleaning products

You don't need commercially produced cleaning products to clean your home. Some retail cleaning products may be harmful to the wellbeing of your family and your pets. Most commercially produced household cleaning products can be replaced with common safer products found at grocery or home improvement stores. Products used outside your home can find their way into the city's storm water system and end up in the Halifax or Tomoka rivers. This impacts aquatic creatures and leads to toxin build up in the fish we eat.

Instead of using retail cleansers try these common household products:

Baking soda with water makes an all-purpose cleaner
Borax removes stains on toilet bowls
Lemons remove greasy fingerprints on windows
Toothpaste cleans silver
Vegetable-based liquid soap (like Castile) diluted with water makes an all purpose cleaner
White distilled vinegar diluted with water is an all-purpose cleaner and removes baking soda residue

Disposal of household cleaning products Don't dump unused cleaning products down the drain or in the trash. They can be taken to the Volusia County Landfill, 1990 Tomoka Farms Road in Daytona Beach. The Volusia County Landfill accepts household garbage, yard trash, land clearing and construction debris, household hazardous waste, appliances and car tires (up to 4).

Cigarette butts

Discarded cigarette butts are the greatest litter problem in the world. They constitute close to 2 billion pounds of trash each year. Each cigarette butt is toxic and leaches cadmium, lead and arsenic into our ground and surface waters. Check these sites - The Terra Mar Project and Very Well Mind - for more statistics on this problem and what you can do to eliminate this stinky, dirty and poisonous problem.

Motor oil

Used motor oil can be recycled and is a valuable resource. It takes less oil to produce a gallon of re-refined oil that it does to make a gallon from crude. Re-refined oil is used motor oil that undergoes an extensive re-refining process to remove contaminants to produce good-as-new base oil. The main difference between re-refined and virgin oil products is that re-refined represents the responsible choice for the environment. For more information about recycling motor oil, visit the Environmental Protection Agency's Website.

Steps you can take to reduce motor oil from contaminating the environment:

Maintain your vehicles, repair oil leaks from engines and keep the engine in proper operating condition
Support businesses that help make oil recycling easy
Wash your car at car washing facilities that are connected to a wastewater treatment system
Avoid and report or contact utilities dispatch at (386) 671-8815 with any information about mobile car washing services that allows runoff into the city's storm drains.
If you wash your car at home, do it in the yard and not on the driveway. This will allow the soil to filter out pollutants, protecting ground and surface water quality.

Where you can recycle locally:

Recycle your used oil at Volusia County's igloo collection sites. Visit the drop off sites list for locations.

Old heating oil tanks

Thousands of rusting, deteriorating home fuel oil tanks have been left in the ground in Volusia County. These tanks often are filled with 10 to 250 gallons of old heating oil. One gallon of oil can pollute up to one million gallons of ground water. Volusia County's Solid Waste Division will pump out left over heating oil from residential tanks for FREE. You can help to protect our water supply by calling Volusia County Solid Waste at (386)257-6021.

Electronic waste recycling options

Recycle your old electronics or donate them to disabled or economically disadvantaged kids and adults in your community. Computers, cell phones, print cartridges, batteries and computer hardware can also be recycled.

Lead acid batteries

Batteries such as those used in automobiles are banned from landfill disposal. By law, retail outlets which supply batteries must accept your old one for recycling. You also may bring the battery to the household hazardous waste facility at the Tomoka Landfill. You may also do a local search at Earth911 for all other types of battery disposal locations. For any other recycling or disposal questions, please contact Volusia County's Recycling and Solid Waste Division at (386)257-6021.

Gasoline, paints, thinners/solvents, pool chemicals

These and similar materials cannot be disposed in your garbage because they are harmful to the environment. Volusia County residents may dispose of household hazardous waste at the Household Hazardous Waste Facility at the Tomoka Landfill located at 1900 Tomoka Farms Road. You may also do a local search at Earth911.

Paint exchange

The Tomoka Landfill provides a non-commercial paint exchange facility for residents of Volusia County. An average of 300 gallons of paint are recycled through this facility each month. This facility provides paint to non-commercial and non-profit organizations as available. Please contact the Tomoka Landfill for more details at (386) 947-2952.

Household Hazardous Waste Amnesty Days

The Recycling and Solid Waste Division offers more convenient locations for the disposal of household hazardous waste during Hazardous Waste Amnesty Days, usually offered in November and April each year. Several "off-landfill" sites are provided throughout the county for residents who don't live close to the permanent collection center at the Tomoka Landfill.

Needles and diabetic-testing strips

The Volusia County Health Department provides a sharps program for users of insulin and other injectable medications.