WE DID IT! On Saturday, April 20th we reached a tremendous milestone. From 2005 to April 2024, NNSWCD, VCE and the Northern Neck localities have worked together to collect OVER a million pounds of HHW/E-Waste!!! This great achievement was celebrated at the Northumberland Co. Spring HHW with a commemorative banner. 197 vehicles came through and over 17,000 lbs. of household hazardous and electronic waste was collected.

Around 2005, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) offered a program that paid for a company to pickup farm chemicals for proper disposal. VDACS offered the use of their vendor and contracted a price for rural counties to do similar household hazardous waste cleanup. Matt Lewis with the Lancaster/Northumberland Virginia Cooperative Extension Office, took the opportunity to the Northumberland and Lancaster county administrators who both agreed to give this household hazardous cleanup day a shot. Matt set up an event in Kilmarnock for Lancaster County residents and in Burgess for Northumberland County residents. Both events were successful and both counties agreed to continue these events every year through county funding.

In 2008, Northern Neck SWCD joined forces with VCE to continue and expand the HHW program. In 2009, Westmoreland County held their first household hazardous waste collection and Richmond County followed in 2010. Eventually electronic waste collection was added to each county event with the exception of Westmoreland County.

We are proud of how these events continue to grow and evolve. Since 2009, we have worked with MXI Environmental Services out of Abdington, VA. They are a wonderful group to work with and make setting these events up each year so effortless.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to making these events so successful and keeping our community protected from these harsh chemicals for future generations to come.