The Yolo County Board of Supervisors OK’d a memorandum on the consent agenda from their March 27 meeting to establish a joint program with the city of Woodland to dispose of household batteries.

According to the materials provided in the meeting’s agenda, Yolo County supervisors approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with each of the four cities — Davis, West Sacramento, Winters and Woodland — for the collection and disposal of household batteries in 2018. The city of Woodland’s MOU was the only one with a termination date, which was June 2021.Prior to 1997, household batteries were designated under the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) as hazardous waste and were only accepted at the Yolo County Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Facility on specific collection days.

Legislation changed, which reclassified household batteries from strictly hazardous waste to universal waste and allowed the Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) facility to accept batteries daily. This allowed the jurisdictions within Yolo County to provide a wider variety of collection sites to encourage the safe and convenient disposal of batteries.

In 2024 alone, the county collected over one ton of household batteries from the city of Woodland’s four collection sites. In order to continue to provide this service, the county and city need this agreement in place.

The new agreement states the city of Woodland will maintain the collection sites, and the county will allocate $2,000 a year to help with the collection of the materials. The MOU allows for more collection sites to be established, though it does cap the total the city can have to 10.

Off-schedule collections from the county would cost the city a $75 fee, which would be sent to Woodland staff in the form of an invoice.

Staff from both Woodland and Yolo County signed off on the MOU, and it was unanimously approved by supervisors.