More than 1,200 cars passed through the Via Princessa Metrolink parking lot Saturday for the hazardous household waste and e-waste drive-thru event hosted by the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts and the city of Santa Clarita.
They partnered with Clean Earth to collect more than 1,300 loads of hazardous waste like paints, batteries and electronics.
Dozens of people helped to run a smooth event on a very hot day, according to Guadalupe Rodriguez, the event supervisor.
“It was really busy in the morning, but it died down after lunch,” Rodriguez said, noting that they saw 300 cars per hour during the first half of the day.
She said some cars had multiple loads of waste.
“Last time, they had 2,200 loads,” Rodriguez said of the last household hazardous waste event in Santa Clarita. “This event has been more toward average levels. So, all the COVID cleanups kind of died down.”
Ricardo and Susan Ve La Peña, of Santa Clarita, dropped off paint, batteries and light bulbs Saturday afternoon.
“It’s so convenient that it’s so close by,” Susan said of the drive-thru event. “It’s irresponsible to dispose of that stuff in the trash. We just hold on to it until there’s a (household hazardous waste) event.”
Much of the waste dropped off at the drive-thru gets recycled, said Juan Sanchez, representing Clean Earth.
“We try to recycle as much as we can,” he said. “We try to minimize what we send to landfills.”
Rob Rea, of Santa Clarita, drove through the event shortly before it ended at 3 p.m.
“It’s nice because we’re getting ready to move and it’s nice to clear out all the paints and caulking and liquids that would just be a pain in the neck to try to drop off anywhere else,” he said.