Soaked rags

While many liquid chemicals are accepted at UCRRA’s Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) events, any cloth, fabric scrap, rags, or paper towels that have been soaked or saturated with a chemical is NOT acceptable at these HHW events. Once the chemicals (paint  thinner, oil, gas, paint, etc.) come in contact with a fiber rag, the ability to remediate the chemical from the rag is very low or difficult. Chemical soaked rags may be flammable. Follow these instructions when discarding chemical-soaked rags in the trash: 

DO NOT place rags or paper towels in your recycling container or in a clothing/shoe/textile collection bin. 

Put used rags in a bucket of water overnight. 

Remove them from the water and double wrap the completely soaked rags in plastic wrap or two plastic bags so they don’t dry out. Place the double-bagged rags in a larger trash bag and put them out with your household trash, very close to the day your trash will be collected.