New Rule Will Prevent Local Waste Disposal Sites From Accepting Treated Wood
Treated wood [Image from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control]
Effective Jan. 1, 2021, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) will no longer allow the landfill disposal of treated wood waste (TWW). This means that transfer stations and rural container drop-off sites can no longer accept TWW for disposal after Dec. 31.
In response to expiring legislation, the DTSC announced the current statute and regulations are set to expire and households and businesses will be required to dispose of this material as hazardous waste.
Transfer station personnel will perform load checks and have been instructed by the state to reject any treated wood waste.
Treated wood waste comes from old wood that has been treated with chemical preservatives. These chemicals help protect the wood from insect attack and fungal decay while it’s being used. Fence posts, sill plates, landscape timbers, pilings, guardrails and decking are examples of chemically treated wood. TWW contains hazardous chemicals that pose a risk to human health and the environment if they leach out of regular solid waste landfills.
Arsenic, chromium, copper, creosote and pentachlorophenol are among the chemicals used to preserve wood and are known to be toxic or carcinogenic.
Starting Jan. 2, Humboldt Waste Management Authority’s (HWMA) Hazardous Waste Facility will begin accepting treated wood waste.
Residential customers may bring up 100 pounds per day. Sections must be less than 3 feet in length with nails, staples, screws and other fasteners removed whenever possible to do so.
Small businesses are encouraged to call HWMA at 707-441-2005 for information on volume restrictions and costs.
For more information, residents and businesses can visit DTSC’s website at dtsc.ca.gov/toxics-in-products/treated-wood-waste-information-and-fact-sheets.
Questions regarding TWW can be sent to:
[email protected] or mailto:[email protected].
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Now it will be burnt illegally or dumped illegally.
I can’t thank Chinese government enough for their deep concern for the environment , human rights, and free speech, and all those confuscious institutes on university campuses throughout the country.
I heart you;)
Well if PT Wood is code, in building, the county will be responsible for its remediation.
Hazardous waste being up to “code” has nothing to do with it. The county accepts “household” hazardous waste without charge. Contractors and businesses will have to pay to dispose treated wood like any other hazardous substance. The article says they will accept 100 pounds per day.
I don’t know what you think China has to do with any of this.
I agree with you, but do you understand there is only one facility that, under this new law, will be able to accept treated wood. It is unjust for the government to require all treated wood to be sent somewhere without the the proper infrastructure. So yeah, it will be illegally burnt, buried, and disposed because no one will want to pay to have it transported to Bakersfield. Politicians should actually look at the implications of the laws they set, leave your mansions fancy restaurants, and take a step in to reality. Dems are ruining such a great state.
Trashman is right. Many people will burn it or dump it anywhere easy.
How about CRV redemption?
If they really wanted to get all the old PT wood disposed of correctly, they should have offered to PAY people to bring in as large an amount as possible. This is crap that was sold to us. Why is the victim forced to jump through hoops? Who actually profited from selling PT wood?
And maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to sell it anymore either! We are a small company that didn’t know of this new law with a trailer load we can’t find a place to take it to! WTH
For the last 20 years it’s all been made of second grade piss fir with a mild coat. Leave it on the ground. It’s rotten quickly.
Hopefully people stop buying it altogether. Lindseed oil FTW.
Highly doubtful, and linseed oil is garbage. This shit will just get burned and or discarded on the side of the road. These laws are basically the same as most other laws that get forced on us in Cali, many will ignore and go the other way with it. This law will end up doing more damage to the environment than it will do saving it. But keep telling yourself this is a good thing! At least it sounds good in your echo chamber!
Households can still dump as much treated wood as they want for free, 100 pounds per day. Anyone who starts dumping it on the side of the road is literally just looking for an excuse to be an asshole.
Unfortunately there are a lot of assholes out there.
This morning my neighbors across the street were burning plastic I could smell the reeking stench coming up the driveway.
“As much as they want” and “100 lbs a day” are two way different things. Anybody who has ever done carpentry: have you ever purchased or built with wood? You ever use more than 100 lbs on a house?!
I live in rural Humboldt. 2 hrs away from Eureka. So i just put 100 lbs of old wood in the truck. Ok. So if I need to safely dispose of all this old wood I can just easily drive all day every day to bring it in…Oh Eureka hazardous waste is only open on weds. Ok.
If you disposed of treated wood in the trash, you still had to pay for it. It was never a free service.
Don’t act ridiculous. It’s absurdly different between dumping in town or multiple trips up north. I have to say that yeah, people will burn it. California doesn’t know how to enact proper legislation.
alright what about the waste haulers that pick up the wood. Somebody has to deal with it and is we put it on wast collectors and haulers expect high increases in your trash rates.
my local hazardous material facilty is charging 1$ per foot…. hardly free
Arsenic, chromium, copper, creosote and pentachlorophenol will likely be banned in California in the next decade
All are naturally occurring substances.
Pentachlorophenol is definately not naturally occurring.
Penta is not a naturally occurring substance.
Fake News
Chromated copper arsenate has been banned in many countries. That’s not the same as banning arsenic, chromium, copper. Nobody is banning copper FFS.
100 pounds per day. So, a typical deck or fence or set of stairs will take over a week to dump. And no length over three feet? Another day or two spent cutting the mess up.
I have no problem with clean and green, but this is a random and heavy blow to rural property owners everywhere. Suddenly, your property won’t “pass code” and all kinds of hassles that will mean good people get the shaft on all kinds of mortgages, upgrades, refi’s etc.
This is offset by the fact that household waste disposal is FREE. Dumping lumber as greenwaste or trash costs money.
Where is “household waste disposal” free? Please enlighten us.
When I take my household waste to the dump (2 big bags, twice a year) the minimum charge is $12. The weight of what I dump does not reach the level of a minimum load as all I dispose of is the packaging plastic I cannot recycle.
http://www.hwma.net/facilities/hazardous-waste-facility
Humboldt Waste Management offers no cost household hazardous waste disposal. This covers chemicals, used oil, batteries, pills, ect… It does not apply to trash and recycling. Call for more details.
In Eureka you can dispose of household hazardous waste for free.
Waste oil, paint etc
Not free as a business…but there are no businesses that have ever been sold treated wood
Businesses already had to pay to dispose of treated wood.
Been to Pierson’s lately. Not hard to find treated wood. Schafer’s on Harris, and the list goes on. What next, dig up all the PG&E poles most of which are treated.
not pressure treated wood. call them, stop looking at outdated website information
I didn’t consider the free disposal fact. That does help out a lot of people. Still this makes a lot of structures suddenly very expensive toxic liabilities when (not if) it comes time for financing, even if/when changing hands.
Amazing.So like with so many rules it’s unenforcible but makes polititions pat each other on the ass over dinner at the French Laundry.40 years on and we’ve messed up recycling so bad there are literally tons of cans and bottles building up.Linseed oil ,my ass.Looks like it just goes in contractor bags now,and geist really?Build much?Pressure treated wood is literally like half the yard at the Mill Yard.Ive identified as an environmentalist my whole life but to both require using pt and classifying it as hazardous waste is total bs.
People had to dump their treated wood as trash before, now households can dispose of it for free. If contractors want to use potentially hazardous materials, they can pay for the disposal.
We were and are required to use PT lumber per state code and IBC. Now we’re being screwed for it. Sure I can hike my disposal costs up to cover it but that will just force potential customers to go with the cheaper guy whose disposing illegally.
you don’t get it. The fees get and will get passed onto the client. This is an absolute ridiculous mandate. Worse items are allowed to be dumped at landfills, like, strawberry plastic that has been sprayed with pesticides. This is the most as backwards state. california is clueless and doesn’t think of the whole picture. Stores are still allowed to sell this product but there’s no local areas to properly dump waste.
Again, What facility is allowing free pressure treated wood disposal??? Mendocino county is charging 1$ per foot for that 100 lb a day at the haz mat drop….
Chopping the wood releases dust and fibers still coated in chemicals.
?
Those fibers and dust stays in the earth creating a hazmat area.
??
Home owners will bw fined for environmental damage for cutting treated wood the state instructed them to cut.
???
(clown world intensifies)
Know Your Meme
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Clown_World
So clowns are racist now?
[edit]
Guess I’ll need to find a different virtue signal flag to fly.
Clowns have always been racist, but that’s besides the point.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage_Irish
“Clown world” is literally just a meme that came about to get racist posts past messageboard moderators.
Interesting, I did not know that.
Thank you.
First, there is no place to drop off used oil except eureka, now pt is hazardous. In a county so large and rural, these “rules” should be considered hazardous…maybe offering rural drop of sites 1-2times a month to assist removing these materials from our fragile environment should be a rule as well…
Treated wood burns very well. Beautiful hot fire. All the plastic, used oil, paint and chemicals disappears into the atmosphere to be shared with all.
Freedom fumes
oh California, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Now it will all be dumped and burned illegally!!! Genius.
If you disposed of treated wood in the trash, you still had to pay for it. It was never a free service.
The logic you are using could be used to justify illegally dumping anything anywhere.
The leftists are so stupid, they never think things through
Lets face it the Politicians have forced consumers to use PT in construction for years now. And all these years, we all been breathing the vapors from this stuff . And new here again were being forced to figure
out there mess at the consumers expense. I think 2020 has shown us many facts about our two Political parties that make stupid laws at consumers expense. I guess its ok to pollute the air more by driving to somebody else back yard to dump the pressure treated so call waste and maybe dump the politicians along with it.
Everybody complaining about the new law….how about finding a solution. Most of the wood could probably be repurposed.