Hazardous waste Halloween BY SUE HICKEY Advertiser

As this sign indicates, some hazardous materials can't be dropped off at Centennial Field Saturday for MMSB's Household Hazardous Waste Day. But if you want to get rid of those half-empty paint cans, old cleaning fluids, paint thinners, spray cans, dead batters and other items on the MMSB website, bring them along for proper disposal.

If your shed or basement has a corner devoted to almost empty paint cans, containers of used batteries, burnt-out twirly fluorescent light bulbs, plastic bottles of almost used-up motor oil and transmission fluid, there's a place where you can bring your toxic trash to throw out with impunity.

It's Centennial Field, and on Oct. 31 you can load up your vehicle, wagon or even a cart behind your bicycle and come on down for Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day in Grand Falls-Windsor.

Brought to the provin-ce's residents by the Multi-Materials Stewardship Board (MMSB), the drive to collect toxic trash has been happening around the province since April at 12 different sites at alternate times. It wraps up in Gander Nov. 1 for this year.

At the field, employees from companies contracted by the board and trained in HazMat waste removal will take the hazardous materials off your hands for proper disposal.

You can bring along just about anything that says "corrosive," "flammable," "poison" on the label. You can even take those twirly bulbs that you aren't supposed to throw in the regular garbage. They were the be-all and end-all for conscientious energy savers, but like the Force, they had their dark side.

They have mercury in them, and when they end up in a landfill site, the bulbs are bound to shatter. Then the mercury will leach into the water table, which can spell disaster for wildlife and humans.

Fertilizers and cleaners, however, can be brought to the field for disposal.

There are some items the MMSB won't take, though. Old smoke detectors are not welcome to the MMSB party because the key item that allows them to detect fires is a radioactive core. Fireworks and explosives can't be brought over either. Neither can PCBs.

For a complete list of HHW products as well as times for locations and drop-off sites, the information is on the agency's Web site at www.mmsb.nl.ca.

HHW Day runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 31.