The Labor Day Comedown: What to Do With the Party Leftovers
The folding chairs are broken, the cooler is cracked, and there is a mystery pile by the grill. Here is what to do with everything Labor Day weekend left behind — including the stuff you cannot just toss.
Labor Day weekend is the last big cookout of the summer, and it usually leaves behind more than a to-do list — a cracked cooler, folding chairs that did not survive the weekend, half a bag of charcoal, and a propane tank nobody wants to deal with. Most of it is easy. A couple of things need to be handled the right way.
The easy stuff
Broken folding chairs and tables, a cooler with a cracked lid, deflated pool toys, a torn tarp or canopy — this is ordinary bulky junk. It can go out with a same-day pickup along with anything else in the garage or backyard that has been waiting for an excuse to get cleared.
The charcoal grill
Hot ash can stay dangerously hot for a surprisingly long time — some sources say up to 48 hours — so do not bag it and put it out with the trash the morning after. Let it cool completely, or douse it with water and stir to make sure nothing is still smoldering. Once it is genuinely cold to the touch, wrap it in foil or scoop it into a metal container before it goes in an outdoor trash bin. Warm ash bagged in plastic is a real cause of trash can and truck fires — it is one of the more common ways a routine cookout turns into a call to the fire department.
The propane tank
A propane tank — full, empty, or anywhere in between — never goes in the trash or curbside recycling, even if it looks empty. Tanks that get crushed in a garbage truck or compactor can ignite. Most places that sell propane will take an old or damaged tank, and LA County residents can also drop one off at a S.A.F.E. Collection Center. If a grill cleanout is part of a bigger job we are already doing, disconnect the tank first and let us know — we handle the rest of the grill, but the tank itself needs to go through the hazardous-waste pathway either way.
The patio furniture that did not make it
A summer of sun usually finds the weak point in at least one outdoor chair or table. If Labor Day was the breaking point — literally — for a piece of furniture, that is exactly the kind of bulky item that is easy to add to a same-day pickup instead of it sitting by the curb for a week.
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