MACON, Ga. — Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve all been using a lot of hand sanitizer to clean up.
However, hand sanitizer is causing a mess outside the county-owned Macon Mall. A pile has been sitting outside the mall for several days, at least.
One man posted about it on social media last week.
This pile of boxes and bottles stretches about 100 ft. long and 5 ft. in height on the side facing the new Macon Ampheater.
There are wooden pallets, cardboard boxes and what looks like thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer.
Hand sanitizer is used to clean your hands, but it’s not harmless.
The Federal Environmental Protection Agency says lots of people, businesses, and institutions stocked up during the pandemic.
Now, much of it has expired, and many people still have large stacks of sanitizer.
The EPA says it can be toxic, and can also ignite.
Alcohol-based sanitizer typically contains about 60 percent alcohol.
The pile of hand sanitizer bottles outside of the mall had expiration dates that ranged from 2020 to 2027. Each one had a flammable warning.
Macon-Bibb County spokesman Chris Floore said these boxes of hand sanitizer have been stored in the mall since 2021. The county bought the mall in 2022.
He says the county recently placed them outside the mall so they could be disposed of properly.
Floore says they can’t be placed in a dumpster, so they were waiting for a disposal company to come pick it up.
The EPA says you should never pour hand sanitizer down the drain or dump it in the household trash, which could cause fires or explosions.
You can put an empty container in the trash, but sanitizer should be recycled or taken to a hazardous waste disposal site.