BATON ROUGE - Just because it's spring cleaning, doesn't mean it can all go in the trash.

The City-Parish will host its bi-annual Household Hazardous Materials Collection Day on Saturday, March 2. Improperly disposing of hazardous household materials — acids, bleach, TVs and electronics, batteries, fluorescent compact bulbs, thermometers, paint thinners, cooking oils, just to name a few — can detrimentally harm the environment, but it can harm even more those who are disposing of waste: waste management and city workers.

"Many of these materials could potentially cause a fire in a garbage truck," Mark Armstrong, the City-Parish's chief communications officer, said. "You can only imagine if you were to throw a propane tank into your garbage bin, that's put into a garbage truck, that's then compressed. You could have an explosion. You could have a fire. You could have an issue on your roadways as a result of that."

A spokesmen from the Baton Rouge Fire Department said that when an unknown hazardous chemical in a garbage truck leaks onto a waste management worker, that employee's health is at risk. If hazardous materials are detected within a whole garbage truck's worth of trash, the whole truckload of trash has to be dumped.

That's not something that normally crosses someone's mind.

"Just because we bought it at the store, doesn't mean we can throw it away like regular trash," said a Baton Rouge Fire Department spokesman.

Jennifer Richardson with Keep Tiger Town Beautiful said she has found upwards of 15 propane tanks in homeless camps and even underneath the I-10 interstate. She also said she has found "hundreds and hundreds" of tires, which contain carcinogens: cancer-causing agents.

Environmental impacts of improper hazardous waste disposal include harming wastewater systems by offsetting the good bacteria within the system, damaging waterways and contaminating surface and groundwater, which could harm anyone's health. Heavy metals in electronic waste materials can also affect water sources.

Some leftover household products, such as paints, petroleum-based items, poisons, cleaners, and batteries, can contain hazardous ingredients and require special care when you dispose of them as they can catch fire, react, or explode under certain circumstances. Improper disposal of such items can include pouring them down toilets or sinks, on the ground, into storm drains, or in some cases, putting them out with the regular trash. These improper disposal methods cause environmental hazards by contaminating surface and groundwater and can pose a threat to human health. 

The City-Parish's Household Hazardous Materials Collection Day will start at 9 a.m. at LSU Touchdown Village, South Quad Drive and will run until 1 p.m., and is only open to East Baton Rouge residents. Residents must present a valid ID.