In efforts to keep toxic chemicals out of landfills, communities may be wasting time and money with expensive and ineffective ways of collecting hazardous household waste, say UC Davis researchers. Contaminated landfills, for example, may be relatively inconsequential compared to greater environmental and human health risks posed by storing and dumping household wastes elsewhere. U.S. households generate huge amounts of toxic waste every year, says Robert Anex, co-author of a recent report on the issue and a UC Davis graduate student in civil and environmental engineering. Each household stores an estimated 50 to 100 pounds of hazardous materials. These include batteries, inks, aerosol cans, various cleansers, pool chemicals, oils, antifreeze, paints, solvents, insecticides and herbicides. The best collection programs can only claim to catch about 5 percent of household toxic waste, Anex says, and some collection efforts may drain public coffers with only meager benefits. Communities need to rethink both the problems and solutions, according to the report for the UC Davis Center for Environmental and Water Resource Engineering by Anex and UC Davis engineering professor Jay Lund.