A New Partnership for Cleaner Homes and a Healthier Chesapeake Watershed
A Great Blue Heron flying over Sligo Creek in Montgomery County, Maryland — part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Photo by Won-ok Kim.
At Orion’s Attic, we’re always looking for ways to serve families better while living our environmental ethics in action. Today we’re excited to announce our newest green strategic partner: Yuck Old Paint — a specialty company that safely removes and environmentally processes household hazardous waste, qualifying as many items as possible for recycle & reuse. (They do not handle HAZMATS and refer those situations to other qualified companies.)
Together, we’re making household hazardous waste removal easier, safer, and more environmentally responsible for homeowners across Montgomery County, Maryland, Washington DC, and Northern Virginia.
The hazardous mess hiding in every home
Every year in the United States, Americans buy more than 750 million gallons of paint, and roughly 65–80 million gallons end up sitting unused in garages and basements.
Here in Montgomery County and across the Washington DC region, anything poured down a drain, dumped in the woods, or leaking from a trash bag can ultimately flow into the Chesapeake Bay watershed. That means the leftover cans in one garage can become part of a much bigger environmental story.
If you’ve ever opened a garage, basement, utility room, or under-sink cabinet during a cleanout, you already know the scene.
Half-used paint cans.
Wood stains.
Deck sealers.
Aerosols.
Cleaners.
Mystery liquids with labels that look like they fought in the Civil War.
As I say in our video, it’s “the inevitable wall of chemicals … hidden everywhere.”
It can be “a big, smelly, stinky, sweaty mess,” and it’s one of the most time-consuming and stressful parts of a cleanout.
For years, we handled this ourselves — including many trips to the Montgomery County Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station.
But this work is specialized, regulated, and increasingly complicated. Proper household hazardous waste removal requires expertise, documentation, and responsible downstream disposal.
We wanted a better solution for our clients — and for the region we live in.
Why we partnered with Yuck Old Paint
Before we go further, the video below introduces the partnership and explains why we chose Yuck Old Paint to help us handle household hazardous waste removal safely and responsibly.
The scale of the problem: it’s not just “a few old cans”
This isn’t a niche issue — it’s a nationwide one that shows up in garages and basements everywhere.
- The U.S. produces about 292 million tons of municipal solid waste per year (about 4.9 pounds per person per day).
• About 10% of paint purchased becomes leftover — roughly 65–80 million gallons every year.
• The EPA reports that leftover paint is the largest-volume material collected by most household hazardous waste programs.
• The average U.S. household generates more than 20 pounds of household hazardous waste per year, and as much as 100 pounds can accumulate in a home.
In other words, proper household hazardous waste removal is not a rare problem. It’s something hiding in garages and basements all across the country.
Meet Yuck Old Paint: the people who aren’t afraid of this stuff
Raea Jean Leinster, Yuck Old Paint.
When I first met Raea Jean Leinster — Chief Yuck Officer, she looked at a wall of chemicals and said exactly what you want to hear from the right partner:
“This is the stuff that we love to do, and we are not afraid of this.”
Raea describes the mission plainly:
“We safely remove liquid, hazardous, and universal waste chemicals, qualify them for reuse or recycle, and then we distribute them and divert them away from local landfills.”
In other words: this is professional household hazardous waste removal, done correctly — with specialized procedures, documentation, and downstream recycling or reuse channels designed specifically for this work.
Lower cost, zero markup, full coordination
Because Yuck Old Paint specializes in household hazardous waste removal, they can often do the job for less than we can do it ourselves — and that savings matters.
Just as important: Orion’s Attic does not mark up Yuck’s bill.
We coordinate and manage the process as part of our service so you don’t have to research regulations, schedule separate vendors, or make multiple disposal trips.
Selfishly (and honestly), it also saves our team the time, stress, and stench of transporting what can feel like a rolling chemistry set across the region.
The two terrible choices people make (and why they happen)
Over the years we’ve learned something important: most homeowners aren’t trying to be irresponsible — they’re overwhelmed.
They genuinely don’t know the rules, or they can’t imagine spending a Saturday driving around with leaking cans in the trunk.
So they make one of two bad choices:
1) They put chemicals in black trash bags and toss them in the regular waste stream.
2) Or worse, they dump them outdoors — in the woods, along roadsides, or into drainage areas.
And yes — some estate liquidation and junk hauling companies certainly know better, but it’s faster and more profitable to do the same.
Unless you strongly oppose it, we’ll say it plainly:
We find that unconscionable.
Responsible household hazardous waste removal matters for the health of the communities where we live.
Why this matters here: the Chesapeake watershed is downstream from all of us
If you live in Maryland, DC, or Northern Virginia, you live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
That means what happens in a driveway in Silver Spring, a basement in Bethesda, or a garage in Rockville doesn’t stay there.
Maryland environmental materials explain it simply:
“Everything that goes on in the Chesapeake watershed will eventually affect the Bay.”
The City of Fairfax puts it even more bluntly: anything dumped into a storm drain eventually reaches local streams — and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay.
How the harm happens (plain language, no scare tactics)
Won-ok Kim collecting trash that washed down from a nearby commercial parking lot before it could reach Sligo Creek.
Here’s the real-world chain reaction.
- In trash bags: liquids leak. Cans rupture. Chemicals escape.
• In landfills: rainwater filters through buried waste and forms leachate, which can draw chemicals out of trash.
• In drains or on the ground: household hazardous waste can contaminate septic tanks and wastewater treatment systems.
• In stormwater: what goes into gutters and storm drains often flows directly to streams.
The EPA warns that improper disposal of household hazardous waste can pollute the environment, injure sanitation workers, contaminate septic tanks or wastewater treatment systems, and create hazards for children and pets.
This is exactly why responsible household hazardous waste removal matters.
Putting a face on it: from bald eagles to Great Blue Herons
We’ve seen this story before.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service explains how the pesticide DDT washed into waterways, fish absorbed it, and bald eagles were poisoned when they ate those fish. The chemical interfered with their ability to produce strong eggshells, so eggs broke and failed to hatch.
That’s one reason eagle populations crashed — and one reason DDT was banned in the United States in 1972.
Great Blue Heron catching a fish along Sligo Creek. Photo by Won-ok Kim.
Today’s household chemicals aren’t all DDT, but the pathway is the same.
Chemicals move through water.
Then through the food chain.
And here in the Washington DC region, one of the easiest faces to imagine is a bird many of us love seeing along creeks and rivers:
The Great Blue Heron.
Researchers often describe Great Blue Herons as an indicator species because they sit high on the food chain and accumulate contaminants their prey absorbs.
Healthy waterways → healthy herons.
Polluted waterways → everyone downstream pays the price.
Plastic pollution and chemical runoff are not abstract problems. In a story Won-ok and I reported about our beloved Sligo Creek, two Great Blue Herons were found dead with plastic debris filling their stomachs — a stark reminder that what washes into our waterways eventually reaches the wildlife that depends on them.
A thankless job — and exactly why we’re grateful for this partnership
Hazardous household waste removal is essential work, but it’s often invisible.
It’s not glamorous. Nobody throws a parade because you removed old deck sealer correctly.
But this is the kind of behind-the-scenes work that keeps toxins out of soil and waterways.
We’re proud to bring Yuck Old Paint into the Orion’s Attic ecosystem, because it helps us do even more of what we already believe in.
As Raea puts it:
“When it comes time to dispose of these items … we can do better.”
How the Yuck Truck process works
After learning why household hazardous waste removal matters, the next natural question is simple:
How does the process actually work?
The video below shows how the Yuck Old Paint team safely removes and processes chemicals from a property.
Household Hazardous Waste Resources
If you’re looking for household hazardous waste disposal resources in our area, we’ve compiled a list of local programs and information here.
Planning a cleanout, downsizing, or estate liquidation?
Planning a cleanout, downsizing, or estate liquidation project?
We’d love to help. Contact Orion’s Attic
Learn more about our Green Choice environmental commitment
Find out everything you need to know about liquidating estates, cleaning out homes, and downsizing in our Estate Liquidation and Downsizing Guide.
About Orion’s Attic
Orion’s Attic is a full-service estate liquidation, downsizing, and home cleanout company based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 2011, we complete more than 100 full-home estate liquidation and cleanout projects each year, helping families through complex transitions in a professional, stress-free way.
As a “green choice” estate liquidation and estate solutions company, we prioritize donation, reuse, recycling, and responsible disposal whenever possible.
We serve Montgomery County (Ashton, Aspen Hill, Barnesville, Bethesda, Boyds, Cabin John, Chevy Chase, Colesville, Derwood, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Glen Echo, Laytonsville, Montgomery Village, Olney, Potomac, Rockville, Silver Spring, Spencerville, Takoma Park, Wheaton), Frederick County, Howard County (Columbia, Ellicott City), Prince George’s County (College Park, Greenbelt, Hyattsville), Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia.
Raea Jean Leinster of Yuck Old Paint reviews a basement wall of old paint and chemicals — a common scene during estate cleanouts.