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CALIFORNIA UNIVERSAL WASTE Until February 8, 006 households and some small businesses were allowed to put waste batteries, electron c devices, and fluorescent light bulbs in the trash. Homeowners were also allowed to t ow away mercury-containing thermostats until that date. As of February 8, these tems, called universal wastes, may no longer be placed in the trash. Universal wastes re hazardous wastes that are generated by several sectors of society, rather than a singl industry or type of businesses. Hazardous wastes contain harmful chemicals which, f put in the trash may harm people or the environment. Universal wastes include: • Common Batteries — AA, AAA, C cells, D cells and button batteries (e.g. hearing aid batteries). These may contain a corrosive chemical that can cause burns as well as toxic heavy metals like cadmium. (Automotive type batteries are not luniversal waste. When they become waste, they are regulated under a differetpt law.) • Fluorescent Tubes and Bulbs and other Mercury-Containing Lamps— Fluore�cent light tubes and bulbs, high intensity discharge (HID), metal halide, odium, and neon bulbs. These lights contain mercury vapor that may be rele sed to the environment when they are broken. Mercury is a toxic metal that can cause harm to people and animals including nerve damage and birth d9fects. If mercury is released into the environment it can contaminate the air a breathe and enter streams, rivers, and the ocean, where it can contain nate fish that people eat. • Elect is Devices — such as: televisions and computer monitors, computers, printers VCR's, cell phones, telephones, radios, and microwave ovens. These devices often contain heavy metals like lead, cadmium, copper, and chromi in. • Mercu -Containing Devices —thermostats, switches, thermometers, dental amalga , pressure and vacuum gauges, novelty items, counterweights and damper , medical devices known as dilators and weighted tubing, certain rubber Mooring, and gas flow regulators used in older residential gas meters. • Non-E pty Aerosol Cans that Contain Hazardous Materials —Many product in aerosol cans are toxic. And many aerosol cans contain flamma les, like butane, as propellants for products like paint. If your aerosol can is 1 eled with words like TOXIC or FLAMMABLE, don't put it in the trash un ess it is completely empty. Universal Waste Rule Requirements: Under the EPA universal waste rule, a lamp that does not pa s the TCLP test and is broken must be cleaned up and placed in a container. The ntainer must be closed, structurally sound, compatible with lamps, and lacking any evidence of spillage. This advice is applicable to any mercury-