Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, proudly brought to you by Crockett Sceptic.
For this August 28th, 2025, have your host James here.
We're joined right now by our good friend Kayla Rumbalski, Community Development Educator
with UW Division of Extension Wood County.
Kayla, how you doing?
I'm doing well.
How are you James?
Well, I'm doing all right, but unfortunately after introducing you in the title, we have
run out of time.
I'm so sorry, Kayla.
It is a mouthful.
You did it flawlessly though.
It's really been fun to see your progression of pronouncing my name over the past couple
of years.
I appreciate your patience and the waiting for that joke, except waiting to use that joke
for a while.
Absolutely.
One of our topics that you and I have talked over over the last couple of years is putting
a focus on clean sweep.
We are able to do this back in May, I believe.
We did?
Yes.
And we have another one coming up in September.
Yes, so the one back in May was on the 13th, it's always a Saturday, and that was
up in Marshfield, and we had record setting attendance for that.
So the part of me that's a little bit competitive wants to say to all of the listeners that
are coming from the Wisconsin Rapids area, or really just from Wood County, can we beat
Marshfield?
I like this.
It was our Wisconsin Rapids event, and that is Saturday, September 13th.
It's at the town of Saratoga, garage, and town hall.
Thank you to the town of Saratoga for helping us out with this space.
And it is from 8 to noon, so this will be a great opportunity if you're doing some fall
cleaning right now.
Maybe you got a new patio set or something over the summer, and you're trying to make room
for that in the garage or in the shed, as you're kind of looking through and cleaning some
things up.
Any hazardous chemicals that you might have, you know, paint thinners, pesticides, herbicides,
any sort of solvent, many of those things can be brought to clean sweep.
And we would definitely encourage you to do that rather than putting them in the trash
or dumping them down the toilet or anything like that.
First Kaley, you really know your audience, getting into the competitive thing between cities
around here.
Absolutely.
That's all we've all done, nicely done.
Yes.
We can beat Marshfield.
We can do it.
When it comes to the items that you were touching on there that are accepted, those are
all important ones to mention.
Were there any others that you think are key in mentioning this, and especially ones that
you see a lot that you, or you'd like to see more of maybe?
Yeah.
So other things, you know, batteries, it seems like so many devices now have lithium ion
batteries in them, vacuum cleaners, sometimes headphones have lithium batteries in them.
Those are really detrimental if they end up in your traditional, you know, recycling
bin or at the landfill, they can start fires very easily.
And so those are things that we want you to dispose of properly and safely.
In addition, sometimes things around the house, like if you think about some of your drain
cleaners, your floor cleaners, even nail polish remover, is a hazardous chemical.
And so rather than, you know, dumping that bottle out or just throwing the whole bottle
in the trash, encourage you to bring it to clean sweep and let us take care of it for
you.
You mentioned some electronics, and it's important to keep in mind the difference of those
electronics and other ones that are not accepted.
Yes, thank you.
That is a very good, that's a very good distinction to make.
You've taught me well.
Yes, yes.
This is all your information that I've just recycled to you.
I'm proud, Dave.
You're doing a great job.
When it comes to, you know, certain items, and if you're uncertain, that battery is
probably the key to the, you know, what can be done.
Yes.
And we're talking about recycling here, we're, I mean batteries only, I don't mean, you
know, televisions or refrigerators or anything like that.
But if a vacuum cleaner, for example, if you have a vacuum, we can't take the vacuum
itself, but if there is a lithium battery in there, we can take that piece at the clean
sweep event free of charge for you to get rid of it.
And then you can find other safe ways to dispose of that electronic or of the other item.
You know, just piggybacking off of that, Kayla, that this is something you and I've touched
on before, but this is becoming more and more of an issue as we go forward.
As we're, we're trying to do a better job with our garbage.
And I think we, as a society overall, whether it's the, you know, the, the revolution of
recycling or some of the other things, we're doing better about it.
But we're getting, we're piling up our electronics.
Yes.
I know people that have like three or four laptops sitting at their home that they don't
know what to do with them.
Right.
And credit to most of society that is doing that, then it's not just throwing it out
and with their garbage or something.
That's really cool.
But at the same time, I think that there's, I don't want to say an impatience, but there's
almost like, hey, what do I do with these things?
What do I do with these things?
And, you know, people wanting to clear up space and stuff.
Absolutely.
We're going to, we're going to need to see more of electronic versions of the clean sweep
and things going forward.
Yep.
And there are some of those that the town of Saratoga has done electronic recycling in
the past.
And so you can look, look that up online.
In addition, you know, you say things like laptops, many nonprofits in our community and
some organizations will accept laptops to use as refurbished models for education purposes.
You know, maybe they've got a senior who is not as familiar with technology and wants
to, you know, get online to stay connected with their grandkids and that sort of thing.
They might use a refurbished laptop for that.
So certainly there are options out there for the recycling of those devices.
And you can find that with a Google search or you can always call our extension office.
We're happy to direct you.
And maybe that's a future topic, you know, for us to get into some time or something.
For right now, when it comes to other items that are not accepted at the clean sweep coming
up Saturday, September 13th over at the Saratoga Town Hall, we mentioned electronics.
Are there other things we wanted to get to?
Yeah, so nothing medical or biochemical kind of waste.
So when I say that, I mean, certainly no human, you know, waste or anything like that,
but also no prescription drugs, anything like that would not be accepted at clean sweep.
In addition, one that is a common question that comes up is latex paint.
So latex paint is actually okay to let that dry out and then just throw it away in the
regular trash receptacle.
You don't have to dispose of that in a safe way.
So we don't take latex paint at clean sweep, but we do take all other kinds of paint.
So your oil-based paint, your solvents will take all of those things.
I'm guessing that question mainly comes from my father.
I'm guessing it.
I'm sorry about that.
I should have answered that for him.
I should have.
That's totally fine.
It might be my dad as well.
You have to hang out to those paints.
You never know when you got a lot of repaid to that wall and just like need a splotch in
that color.
That's carry keep paint.
They just do.
It's just something the dad's do.
It's a factor.
It's a factor.
Ammunition is another one of the things to keep in mind that is not accepted at this
clean sweep.
Yep.
Absolutely.
And what is this pressurized cylinders?
Yes.
So that's a big one because those are really dangerous actually to dispose of properly.
So when we say pressurized cylinders, we mean propane tanks, particularly some of those
little propane tanks that you would use for camping or for tailgate grilling, those
types of things, those are not accepted at clean sweep.
And what to do with them is a bit of a gray area.
Some metal recyclers will take it for scrap.
Sometimes you can put them in the regular disposal, but you have to be able to certify
that they are indeed empty.
And no one condones the process for doing that, right?
Because you're essentially puncturing a pressurized cylinder.
You don't want to do that if you don't know what's in it.
So a gray area would not be exactly, everyone has a story it seems, but it certainly don't
condone it and not something that we would recommend.
Yeah.
But unfortunately that is something we do not accept at clean sweep.
What I always tell people though is when in doubt, just bring it along.
Theolia is our waste contractor for this.
They're the state contractor for all of the clean sweep events across the state.
And they've seen a good amount of things that have come through.
They'll tell you if they can take it or not.
If they don't take it, they'll tell you what the best way to dispose of it is.
So you can always call our office if in doubt, or if you're bringing things to clean sweep
anyway, just bring it along and see if they take it.
We'll get that information and how to reach out to Kayla before we wrap up here and everything.
We'll also get to some things that you should know before you go.
Absolutely.
Kayla, I do want to take a beat here just to, and I understand that a lot of our audience,
a lot of our society knows the basics, the ABCs of why we do this.
But there's more to it than that.
And they're certainly protecting our planet and keeping it healthy and all of that.
But when we talk about PFAS, when we talk about the different things that are affecting
our youth, or our elderly, or any of these groups that really are severely affected
by these things, it all comes together with events like this in just keeping our land
healthy.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, we have, in Wisconsin Rapids, at least, in Marshfield and other communities here
in Central Wisconsin and in Wood County, we have some great natural amenities.
Those natural resources draw in tourists and economic dollars for tourism.
They also make this place, some places that we want to call home, right?
They make it a place that we want to live.
And so we really need to not take that for granted and protect our natural assets.
In addition to just safety of sanitation workers and all of those pieces, there's a lot
more to it than just the environmental concern.
But certainly that is, you know, as we're steps away from the beautiful Wisconsin River
right now, like that is part of it as well is making sure our waterways are clean and
safe.
I don't do well with clutter.
I don't do well with messes, my brain likes organization.
I am a little bit like that, a little, you know, OCD about those things and stuff.
Even with that, there is no bit of clutter, no thing that is taking up space in your garage,
your basement, that is worth disposing of the wrong way.
There's nothing.
You'd be patient, be an adult, be patient with it.
It'll get out of the house soon enough and it'll get out of the house in the right way.
And it'll get out of the house in a way that will not affect your taxes.
So not affect the state's environmental issues or entertainment, you know, money that
they bring in or so many of these things because anytime you dispose of something negative,
you are hurting your tax dollars.
You are hurting the state's economic impact that it has with its nature and all that.
That's what you're doing.
You dump something, you drop something off in the wrong place, you are directly responsible
for that and we need to start doing that.
I believe personally, just me saying this, we need to be a little more direct about this.
There's a lot of people that use shame as a weapon and things like that.
I'm trying to use it to get people to be smarter and just do what that, your gut is telling
you to do the right thing anyway.
Just listen to your gut.
Yeah.
Have a hard time believing anybody's gut's telling them to do some of this stuff the wrong
way.
I think that overall most people want to get rid of this stuff the right way.
Right.
And I also, sorry to interrupt you James, but the key with this event too is that it's
free.
It costs you anything.
Certainly there are ways to dispose of these items outside of our two clean sweep events
a year.
We recognize that offering this only twice a year for four hours each time is probably
not the most convenient, but we don't have the infrastructure in Wood County to be able
to do this on a long term basis, but some of the counties surrounding us do.
And so if you are, if you're concerned about it and you want it out of your house immediately,
take it to one of those counties.
You likely will have to pay a small fee, but there are ways to get rid of things safely
outside of this event.
Or what I tell people is just, just create a box in your garage.
You put anything you come across in that box.
And then twice a year when the clean sweep events come up, just come in and drop it off.
It's a perfect way to do that.
Oh, I think I'm making a mental note from my father about that.
Right.
It's a really good note, Caleb.
It's really good.
I have a good well box in my garage or in my closet.
It's kind of the same concept.
Right?
Like, I don't need that anymore.
Let me put it in there.
I mean, I will say that I appreciate, and I know that you, the community, would like
to have more of these events.
I think it's impressive that we have them, let alone have two of them.
I sure we could use more, I understand that we all do, but I would like to think that
people also understand, we've got limited resources here and not nonprofits doing this for
our community.
Two of them is impressive to me.
Right.
And this is only the second year of doing two.
And that came directly from listener and from community feedback, right?
We were hearing from folks that said, oh, it's, it's, you know, I'm calling in spring
and the events not till September and it's in Marshfield and I live on the south side
of Rapids.
That's really an inconvenience.
And so we, we looked at some grand dollars and looked at funding and tried to see if
we could make it possible to do two events a year and get to Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids
in the same year.
And we were really fortunate that we were able to do that and that we continue to be able
to do that.
So next year we will have two events as well.
And we may have covered some of this already, but just anything that we have not covered
as far as things people should know before going to the Clean Sweep event in September.
Yeah.
So just to, to give someone maybe a heads up if they've not attended this in the past
and to know what to expect in Marshfield, we did have some pretty significant lines
that built up, know that we'll, we'll try to get you through as fast as possible.
That was the first year that that's happened though.
Or you could just pull up and you would go right in.
But the way that it works is that you'll be greeted by either myself or a health department
or another extension staffer will give you some information, take down your zip code.
We're tracking for just our own analytical purposes.
We don't turn anyone away, but we'll ask where you're coming from.
And then we have the Olia set up and they will actually handle everything for you.
So when you come in, just make sure that you have items that are labeled as best as you
can.
Obviously, if it's an item that, you know, you've inherited, like let's say you just bought
a new house and you've got some items that you're like, I don't know what this is, but
I think it's hazardous and I want to bring it along.
That's fine.
But to, to the extent that you can, please make sure that they're labeled and don't ever
try to mix things together, right?
This is not chemistry, chemistry experiment happening in your garage.
Especially if you don't know what those chemicals are, you don't want to mix them.
So try to keep them in their original packaging to the extent that you can.
And then always put them in the trunk, or if you have a vehicle that has a bed, like
a truck bed, that's ideal.
And our Olia workers will actually remove it from your vehicle for you.
You stay in your car, they'll take care of everything, and then they'll get you on
your way.
Pretty low-key, pretty easy to move, and we hope to see you there.
You know, just piggybacking on that, you know, making sure lids are sealed, everything
is really tight so that when they grab those items, nothing's spilling out or anything
like that.
And you certainly don't want it in your vehicle anyway, so you probably make sure of it
there.
And keeping in mind that, you know, like Kayla mentioned, we want you, if you're curious,
and you don't have a chance to look it up, bring it, but keep in mind that you may be
bringing it back, too, because they may not be able to accept it, but they accept so
much, they're able to do so much, a big shout out to them, and to everybody at Extension
as well, for getting behind this and helping our community out with a great event like
this, Kayla.
Absolutely.
If people have follow-up questions, they would like to know more, how can they get a hold
of you?
So they can search for Clean Sweep Wood County on a search browser that'll bring them
to it, or they can call Extension Wood County.
We're happy to handle those calls and provide more information.
And you can find out more information about UW Extension and the great work that they're
doing over there at extension.wisc.edu, extension.wisc.edu.
Again, Clean Sweep coming up Saturday, September 13th, 8 to noon over at Saratoga Town Hall,
right here in Rapids, Kayla.
Thank you so much.
Good hanging out with you.
Of course.
Good hanging out with you.
Thank you so much.
We'll talk again real soon.
Sounds great.
And thank you, everybody, for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report, probably
brought to you by Crocketsceptic.
