As a gardener or homeowner, you may be wondering what you can do with your leftover pesticide products (including herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides), or maybe you bought a new home and the garage or basement is full of mysterious containers with no labels. If products are stored in garages or other areas with a lot of temperature changes, these products may become entirely unusable. So what to do?
If the products are in usable condition and labeled for use in South Dakota, you can get rid of them by continuing to apply them per their label directions. Last bit of herbicide in the bottle? Find a rogue weed that’s on the label and make an application using the remains of that product.
Disposal Options
Pesticide disposal is sometimes offered by local waste management companies. For the closest to your home option, contact your local city or county landfill, local government, or waste management company.
Collection Programs
The following cities or counties have a residential pesticide and hazardous waste collection program:
- Rapid City: Offers collection one day a year at no cost.
- Sioux Falls Area: Including Lake, Lincoln, McCook, Minnehaha, & Turner Counties.
- Watertown: Offers collection one day a year at no cost.
- Yankton/Vermillion: Offers collection one day a year for $10 fee.
S.D. Department of Agriculture
If you don’t have an option in your county or town, the South Dakota Department of Agriculture (SDDA) does take unusable pesticides from homeowners. To begin this process, fill out an unusable pesticide form from SDDA and submit it to the department. When SDDA staff are in your area, they will come and pick up the products and safely dispose of them.
