Area people can take advantage of special collection days to get rid of unwanted yard and garden chemicals, auto products, paints and thinners and a host of other items.

The Lexington Area Solid Waste Agency, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Incentive Grants Program and local volunteers are joining to bring household hazardous waste collection to various locations in September.

Items will be accepted in Gothenburg from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at the City Maintenance Facility.

The complete schedule is:

Wednesday, Sept. 16—Ainsworth KBR Transfer Station, 12 noon-2 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 18: LASWA landfill site north of Lexington, MRF building, 8-10:30 a.m.; Ansley, Community Center parking lot, 1-2 p.m.; Broken Bow, Custer Transfer Station, 3-5 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 19: Arnold, City Utility building, 8:30-10 a.m.; Thedford, west of Sandhills Oil, 12 noon-1:30 p.m.; Mullen, Waster drop off site, 2:30-4 p.m. CDT

Saturday, Sept. 26—Lexington, fair grounds, 8-10 a.m.; Cozad, recycling and disposal site, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; Gothenburg, City Maintenance Facility, 3-4:30 p.m.

Items accepted include: yard and garden chemicals—pesticides, herbicides; flammables—paints and thinners, auto products, used oil, antifreeze; household products and cleaning chemicals, mercury: batteries—auto, lead acid and/or rechargeable, titanium, cadmium and nickel halide.

These items will not be accepted: infectious waste and needles, radioactive waste, asbestos, oil or paint containing PCBs, high school labs, appliances, construction waste and tires.

Materials should be delivered to collection sites in sturdy, disposable containers labeled according to contents and no larger than five gallons or 50 lbs.

The household hazardous waste program reserves the right to reject any materials.

For more information on what is acceptable, contact: Dave Sterner, LASWA project director, at 308-324-3351; or Bill Elliott, Southwest Nebraska HHW program manager at 308-345-4333.