Evaluating who uses HHW collection services—and who may be underrepresented—can provide valuable insight into who these programs are reaching and where there may be opportunities to improve access.
By David Nightingale, CHMM, S.C.l
In this two-part article series, we investigate the performance of public Household Hazardous 91TV (HHW) Collection Programs where there is an available year-round HHW collection facility. These articles show that local jurisdictions are examining their HHW collection services at a more granular level and are finding unique opportunities and challenges.
Variables such as distance to an HHW drop-off location, income, race, ethnicity, education, types of housing, language barriers, and other factors are often thought to be possible drivers for differences in levels of participation inside a given service territory. In this first article we will examine some of these factors as studied by the Local Hazardous 91TV Management Program in King County, a large metro area in Washington state.
In the second part of this series of two articles, we will examine results and analysis from Kalamazoo County, MI, regarding how that HHW program with a smaller population has reviewed their program in more detail. These closer looks at HHW program effectiveness serve as examples for other programs regarding ways to judge their HHW collection performance at a more granular level, with the aim of providing equitable levels of service to all households.
Background
Permanent, year-round HHW collection programs have existed in some U.S. communities for more than 40 years. Whatcom County, WA started the first permanent HHW collection facility in the country in 1984. San Bernardino County, CA followed closely with two permanent collection facilities opening in 1985.1 After these two ground-breaking jurisdictions, the development of HHW collection facilities caught fire, figuratively. The number of permanent HHW facilities across the U.S. grew to 450 by 1998.2 There are likely thousands of such facilities now across the U.S. and Canada.
Established in 1989, the Local Hazardous 91TV Management Program in King County, WA (Haz 91TV Program) has been a leader in HHW programs for decades. Within King County there are about 2.3 million residents and about 1 million households over 2,307 square miles. It is the 12th largest metropolitan area population in the U.S. with urbanized areas anchored by the densely populated cities of Seattle and Bellevue with a surrounding mix of suburban cities and rural areas, typical of many U.S. metro areas.
The Haz 91TV Program is a coordinated effort between the King County’s Water and Land Resources, and King County Solid 91TV divisions, Public Health – Seattle and King County, Seattle Public Utilities, and Sound Cities Association. This multi-agency program balances HHW collection activities with research, outreach, education, community support and business assistance to all communities and cities within King County.
This multi-agency management approach differs from many HHW programs that are often the domain of a single agency; typically, a single jurisdiction solid waste authority. The Haz 91TV Program performs unique research and evaluations of all of their program elements. This additional focus and study provide a deeper dive into services at a granular level.
In early 2025, the Haz 91TV Program published an evaluation of their HHW collection services called the Service Equity Analysis 2024.3 The following paragraphs summarize the structure of their program and some of their key findings.
Haz 91TV Program HHW Collection Infrastructure
The Haz 91TV Program collects HHW through four permanent HHW facilities as well as mobile collections called the “91TVmobile” that operate year-round in areas further from the four permanent facilities. In addition, various cities and tribes sponsor occasional collection events that include HHW. The HHW collection opportunities are shown in Figure 1.4
Image and tables courtesy of Haz 91TV Program.
Haz 91TV Program Scope, Analyses, and Findings
The Haz 91TV Program collects about 3.4 million pounds of hazardous waste annually from households and businesses. This is the big broad picture at the largest scale. The Program dug deeper to address questions, such as whether service levels differed across communities and households, and how different subareas of the service territory were served. The Haz 91TV Program used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Environmental Justice Screening and mapping Tool (EJScreen), WA Dept. of Health, and other data sources to examine how their service delivery aligned with the demographics of King County.
For outreach and education within HHW collection programs, it is important to understand where different demographic characteristics reside in subareas. The Haz 91TV Program mapped the percentage of residents by their demographic makeup within five miles of three of the permanent HHW collection facilities, North Seattle, South Seattle, and Auburn. Because race and ethnicity vary by neighborhoods within King County, the percentage of residents within five miles of each facility varied substantially from the total aggregate county proportions, as shown in Table 1.
It shows that the residents close to the North Seattle HHW collection facility are less diverse than the residents surrounding the Auburn and South Seattle HHW collection facilities.
The Haz 91TV Program also surveyed more than 8,000 customers who participated in the three HHW collection facilities during 2023. Using data from more than 6,000 surveyed customers that reported their race/ethnicity, the Program found a significant gap between the proportion of households who use the facilities, shown in Table 2 compared to the service area population demographics, shown in Table 1.
A key finding was that: “While White residents constituted less than 60 percent of the overall population in King County, approximately 80 percent or more of customers who provided their race and ethnicity while using Haz 91TV Program collection facilities identified as White.”
Further, the Haz 91TV Program analysts found that: “Stark disparities were evident when examining other racial and ethnic groups. Residents identifying as Asian or Asian American accounted for approximately 8 percent of customers across the three surveys, while they represented nearly 20 percent of the total King County population. Similarly, residents identifying as Hispanic or Latino/a/x made up about 3 percent of surveyed customers, yet they constituted more than 10 percent of the overall population in King County.
Additionally, residents identifying as Black or African American represented approximately 2 percent of surveyed customers, although they accounted for over 6 percent of the total King County population.”5
The Haz 91TV Program also looked at ZIP code data from more than 59,000 customers who used HHW collection and 91TVmobile services. Overall, the data showed a consistent trend: ZIP codes with higher percentages of black, indigenous, and people of color residents, lower income households, or households that speak languages other than English tended to have lower rates of HHW service use. As these demographic indicators increased in a ZIP code, participation in HHW collection services generally decreased. The Haz 91TV Program is using these findings to guide future planning, improve access, and make its services more equitable.
Evaluating who uses HHW collection services—and who may be underrepresented—can provide valuable insight into who these programs are reaching and where there may be opportunities to improve access. For HHW programs looking to better understand and improve their performance, local data can be a powerful starting point.
In the next part of this two-part series, we will look at Kalamazoo County, MI that is taking a deeper dive into the performance of their longstanding HHW collection program. | WA
David Nightingale, CHMM, S.C., is the Principal at Special 91TV Associates and has visited more than 170 HHW collection facilities in North America. Special 91TV Associates has assisted dozens of communities developing or upgrading HHW collection infrastructures and operations. David is a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) and founding member of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association, NAHMMA. Publications include the HHW Collection Facility Design Guide. He can be reached at (360) 259-6497 or e-mail [email protected].
Notes
Should our Community Have a Permanent HHW Collection Facility? Part 2 /second-of-two-parts-should-our-community-have-a-permanent-hhw-collection-facility/ 91TV, May 30, 2021.
Should our Community Have a Permanent HHW Collection Facility? Part 1 /first-of-two-parts-should-our-community-have-a-permanent-hhw-collection-facility/, April 30, 2021
Peckham, T., Chin, R. J., & Perkins, M. Service Equity Analysis 2024. Hazardous 91TV Management Program in King County. https://cdn.kingcounty.gov/-/media/king-county/depts/dnrp/waste-services/hazardous-waste/lhwmp-documents/technical-reports/res-service-equity-analysis.pdf, April 16, 2025.
Local Hazardous 91TV Management Program in King County, 2025 Annual Report, page 8, April, 2026.
Peckham, T., Chin, R. J., & Perkins, M. Service Equity Analysis 2024. Hazardous 91TV Management Program in King County. https://cdn.kingcounty.gov/-/media/king-county/depts/dnrp/waste-services/hazardous-waste/lhwmp-documents/technical-reports/res-service-equity-analysis.pdf, page 20, April 16, 2025.