WHO KNEW You Can Feel Doubly Good When You Ditch Your Teflon Pots and Pans?

If you are thinking of parting with your Teflon-coated pots and pans that are now deemed dangerous [see Note below], but are feeling bad about putting them in the trash because they still work fine and seem as good as new. There’s a way to ditch them and not feel wasteful. In fact, you can feel doubly good about getting rid of them!

You can drop them into the scrap metal bin at Lebanon’s Solid Waste Facility which Hanover residents may use if they get a $5 annual permit (for more information go to https://lebanonnh.gov/1514/Solid-Waste-Permits). The metal - a valuable commodity - will be salvaged with no additional cost to you. At the same location you can find a long list of other metal-containing items you may leave at the Solid Waste Facility. Even those of us who are careful to recycle our aluminum and steel cans may unwittingly throw away many items that are salvageable. Bent bicycles and aluminum blinds, metal jar lids and even the crimped caps from beverage bottles (which must be made of high-grade steel, otherwise they couldn’t be crimped) can all be tossed into the scrap metal dumpster.

To reach the dumpster you must stop at the gatehouse and show your permit. If you have never visited the part of the facility where the scrap metal bin sits, take a look around the area. You might be pleasantly surprised to see what else you can drop off there at little or no cost. You will know you are a doing the Earth a bit of good.

Note: An excellent Consumer Reports article is available at https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/how-to-avoid-pfas-a8582109888/