It was a day when the more junk the better. And for the fifth annual Household Hazardous Waste Event, organizers deemed it a continued success, even though the number of cars that participated was down.

Last year the event drew 276 vehicles from Lawrence and Scioto counties, while this past Saturday there were 178 cars and trucks bringing everything from paint to tires to computer keyboards to a site at Dow Chemical/Americas Styrenics on County Road 1A.

“I attribute the decline to a couple things,” Dan Palmer of the Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste District, said. “One was the nice weather. Last year it rained the whole day and I think the weather had something to do with it. And also additional sites throughout the county with medicine collection.”

This was the first time for the Lawrence County Drug Task Force to participate in the national Prescription Drug Take Back Program where county residents could bring unwanted prescription medications to four sites, also on Saturday.

“We were pleased with the turnout,” Tim Sexton, of the task force, said.

That program collected 44 pounds of pills.

“One of the main purposes in doing this, we wanted to get as many pills out (of circulation) as we could,” Sexton said. “The elderly when they have pills in their house, in our society, they could be targeted for a break-in.”

Also the collection was a way is to reduce the amount of prescription drug abuse among teens. Sexton said the demographic for those participating in the Take Back program was across the board.

“Several people who brought medicines unfortunately had to put loved ones in nursing homes,” he said. “And a doctor’s office had some old medicines.”

All drugs were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration for disposal.

Prescription pills were also collected at the Dow site adding up to 250 pounds of medicines including liquid medicines, needles and other prescription apparatuses.

“This is one of our biggest programs,” Palmer said. “I think this is one of our most successful.”

Palmer also wanted to thank Troy DeHoff and Carl Darling of the Dow/Styrenics operation.

“They allow us to have it on their grounds,” Palmer said. “This is the fifth year in a row and I couldn’t ask for a better location, where people don’t have to vacate their cars.

All non-prescription items were turned over to Veolia, an environmental disposal company.

“For the most part, none of this goes to the landfills,” Palmer said.