The City of Plano began partnering to provide Allen residents a Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) program in 2002, when initiation of a residential household hazardous waste program was approved by the Allen City Council. The Allen program began in February 2002 through a grant from the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and continued without cost to residents through 2003. In FY 2004, a $0.50 fee was included on residential water utility bills to support the HHW program. In June 2008, a fee increase to $0.57 per month was approved to overcome the rising costs of non-reusable HHW collection disposal. The solid financial position of the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund has allowed our residential HHW charge to remain constant since 2008.
The program is on-call for residents and provides them a chemically resistant bin with lid the day prior to their scheduled collection. The three-person Allen HHW staff takes collected bins to the Plano HHW Processing and Reuse Center where the HHW is sorted and cleaned. Reusable chemicals not suitable for reuse are collected for processing by a state licensed processor. Reusable latex paint is blended by the Allen and Plano HHW staffs at the processing center into light and dark color options. Chemicals and paint are distributed to the Plano and Allen Reuse Centers for free issue to the residents of these cities. Many cities run periodic collection events or contract with larger cities to manage their HHW. The Plano/Allen "on-demand" HHW program stresses reuse and proper disposal of HHW items that are not reusable. This very successful program provides residents with an environmentally safe way to remove household chemicals from their homes. This HHW program is also an important component of the City's Texas Pollution Discharge Elimination System (TPDES) Permit.
The City of Allen pays the City of Plano a monthly HHW fee based on the total number of single-family homes in Allen. This fee is currently $0.17 per home per month. In FY19, the Solid Waste Fund will collect about $193,747 in revenues from our $0.57 per month residential fee. Of this amount, about $59,000 will be paid to Plano for program support. The balance goes towards funding overall City of Allen HHW program costs. The attached Interlocal Agreement defines the Allen-Plano HHW relationship and our fee for using Plano's processing center. The HHW program is licensed, tightly regulated, and inspected by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The program license is held by the City of Plano, thus freeing Allen from the very significant burden of program administration. The Plano City Council approved the Interlocal Agreement at their August 13, 2018, City Council meeting.