The Haz Guide

Hampshire County Council (HCC) has expanded its HHW collections in recent years, and has been engaged in a series of communications initiatives to ensure that the public have been aware of services. Also, recent bans on a number of garden chemicals that have been enforced as a result of EU legislation have been the subject of separate publicity.

The implementation of the expanded scheme in April 2003 was timed to coincide with the start of the traditional ‘spring clean’ and gardening season. A press release and ‘Householder’s Guide’ leaflet were produced to publicise the launch of the scheme.

The 2004 EU Directive on pesticides made it illegal to sell, use and keep certain garden products after particular dates. HCC issued a series of press releases to tie in with these deadlines. In addition, a joint publicity initiative was agreed between the HCC and the Crop Protection Association. A small credit card sized advice card was produced and distributed to all major garden centres in Hampshire.

A total of 1.96 tonnes of household and garden chemical products were collected at participating Hampshire HWRCs in the period April 2003 – December 2003. Following the pesticides ban and the publicity initiatives on this issue, 2.92 tonnes of chemicals were collected from January – March 2004.

The HHW collection scheme expanded to include acceptance of household batteries, fluorescent lighting tubes and fluorescent lighting bulbs which was publicised through a press release. The scheme proved to be very popular, with 1.75 tonnes of fluorescent tubes and bulbs and 2.42 tonnes of household batteries collected from April 2004 – December 2004.

Finally, the scheme was extended to a further two HWRCs in February 2005, bringing the total operating the collections to 11 of the 26 HWRCs in the county. This extension was publicised by a press release and the ‘Householder’s Guide’ was also updated to provide full details of collections at the participating HWRCs.