By Shana LiVIGNI

Earth Day and spring cleaning go hand-in-hand and it’s a perfect time to begin getting rid of your unwanted collection of recyclables. Besides being a safety factor it’s a great way of re-using and reinventing things that are of no more use to you. You’d be surprised how many common everyday things can be recycled. The basics, of course, are cans, bottles, some plastics, paint, thinners, oil, brake fluid, oil filters, cleaners, pesticides, pool chemicals and batteries of all sizes – from the tiniest household ones to car batteries.
Every Wednesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the Glendale Fire Department Environmental Management Center (EMC) opens its doors to residents of Glendale and La Cañada for the Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Roundup. All of the items mentioned above are accepted. Here are some rules for sending in your various-sized batteries:

•    Any type of battery that contains metal is recyclable and most batteries are named for the type of metal they contain such as lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, etc. Oddly enough, the more harmful the metal that’s present, the more likely you’ll be able to find a recycler because of state and federal laws. Today there are many battery retailers that also accept both household and car batteries for recycling.

•    You may want to check into mail-in programs that let you collect batteries over time and send them in all at once. However, you will need to prepare the batteries before mailing them out by wrapping them individually otherwise they could explode during shipping. Visit www.biggreenbox.com. Once batteries are collected, any acids are drained for reuse, metals are reprocessed for recycling into new products and plastic casings are melted down and recycled into new plastics.

•    Green Spot Drop Off located at 4427 San Fernando Road in Glendale is a licensed collector of e-waste including computers, monitors, laptops TVs and LCDs. Pick-up and free drop-off available. For a nearby drop off location visit www.greenspotdropoff.org or call (800) 350-3550.

•    La Cañada Recycling, Inc. at 6449 San Fernando Road in Glendale accepts CRV containers, brass, aluminum, copper, stainless steel, computers (fee for monitors). Will pickup for a fee. Document destruction, machinery, equipment and property cleanups also
accepted. (818) 247-3437

•    Oss-Spectrum Inc., located at 7125 Foothill Blvd. in Tujunga is also a non-profit, disabled veterans training center and recycles CRTs and TVs, computers, printers and all e-waste. They can provide an IRS donation slip for working materials. (818) 951-0943

Besides being the largest electronic waste recycler in Southern California, OSS-Spectrum Project of Sunland-Tujunga
utilizes L.A. County discards to hire foster youth, give them an educational stipend and trains them to enter
the electronics industry.
Residents of Glendale may also dispose of their hazardous waste materials at the Environmental Management Center, located at 780 Flower Street. If you are unsure if the EMC will accept an item or if you  need any other information, call (818) 548-4030. For more information on recycling visit www.earth911.com.