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Create a safer home

Garbage and recycling  ›  Guide to hazardous waste  ›  Create a safer home

You can choose to use less-toxic products in your home and garden.

Select safer alternative products whenever you can. You'll save yourself a trip to a hazardous waste facility to dispose of toxic trash and protect the health and safety of your family. Call Metro Recycling Information for free publications and information about alternatives to toxic home and garden products.

Green cleaners

Find out how you can save money, protect your family and the environment by using safe, simple ingredients to clean your home...More

Metro’s natural gardening program

Learn to grow your garden without toxic pesticides. Plus, find out how to provide a healthy habitat for wildlife while discouraging pests...More

Buy only what you need

Check your inventory before buying new products. If you need to buy products that are hazardous, buy only what you will be able to use in a reasonable period of time, and store them securely.

Share leftovers with someone who can use them

One exception: please don't give away old pesticides. They generally lose their effectiveness after two years, and old pesticides often contain chemicals that are now banned (e.g., DDT, Kelthane, chlorpyrifos).

Related Links

Is your garden product toxic?

Metro’s Grow Smart, Grow Safe guide is now a searchable interactive directory, too. Discover the least hazardous products and practices for a healthy, productive garden and a safer yard.

Nature-friendly home improvement

With a little planning and inspiration, you can create a home that balances beauty and comfort with sustainable resource use and environmental health. Get ideas, practices and resources.

MetroPaint: award-winning recycled latex paint

Enjoy high quality and low prices with Metro's 100 percent recycled latex paint, made in Portland, Ore., since 1992.

What is hazardous?

Wondering which home and garden products are hazardous and what to do with them? Metro has two drop-off centers to take your hazardous waste.

Related Internet links

• Washington Toxics Coalition

  (http://www.watoxics.org)

• National Institutes of Health product database

  (http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/index.htm)

• Oregon DEQ

  (http://www.deq.state.or.us/)