Disposal of household chemicals such as paint, engine oil and chemicals into the Council's rubbish bins threatens human safety and potentially causes serious damage to the environment.

Tipping unwanted chemicals into drains or sewerage systems can also attract fines.

The Council encourages all residents to take household chemicals to one of the Council's Transfer Stations.

For further information contact the Council.

For general information on household hazardous waste, please refer to this guide: Keep your rubbish toxic free - available from the Timaru District Council, or view the pdf files below:

View the following PDF files:

•  Keep your Rubbish Toxic Free (381.36 kB)

The Timaru District Council is working with 10 other Councils in Canterbury to address the issues of hazardous waste in our region. A Canterbury Waste Management Strategy has been developed with a vision of zero hazardous waste by 2020. This vision means that by 2020, materials that are currently viewed as wastes would be used as resources for other processes. If this cannot be achieved, then the hazardous properties of the material would be managed so there are no significant actual or potential environmental effects and so therefore would not be a hazardous waste.

As part of this strategy, the Canterbury wide network of Used Oil collection facilities has been set up. The Timaru District Council has facilities available at its transfer stations at Redruth, Temuka and Geraldine. Used oil from domestic uses can be taken to these facilities for proper disposal. For more information please click here.

The Hazardous waste strategy may be viewed at http://www.ecan.govt.nz