Residents Empty Garages of Oil, Paint in Toxic Waste Roundup : Environment: Cleanup on eve of Earth Day at Unocal refinery in Wilmington draws 1,200 cars in 6 hours.

The day before Earth Day, the garages of Los Angeles emptied out their house paint, batteries, crankcase oil, insecticide, rug shampoo, model airplane paint, tile and grout sealer, and snail and slug killer for a household hazardous waste roundup at the Unocal refinery in Wilmington.

“Even got some low-fat yogurt,” said Unocal environmental specialist John Van Kooy, peering at a heap of containers in the refinery’s parking lot.

“It’s peach,” he reported after a close examination.

The event drew an estimated 1,200 cars in six hours.

For much of the time, a slow-moving line of traffic snaked half a mile west of the parking lot as people from as far away as the San Fernando Valley waited to get rid of their waste.

David Henth, 23, brought a trailer loaded with 600 gallons of paint all the way from Granada Hills. He had acquired the paint, contained in fragile, rusty pails, as part of the purchase of a house that needed fixing up.

Attendants in white safety suits told him to pull around for the unloading.

But for most people, who had more modest hauls, the removal took place with the efficiency of a fast-food operation.

David Broadbent, 39, an environmental consultant who lives in Lomita, sat in his 1979 Triumph TR-7 convertible as an attendant relieved him of a single automobile battery.

“Now you can go to the beach,” the man said to Broadbent.

“I’m going to go back and paint my house,” he replied.

The cleanup was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Standard Brands Paints, Western Waste Industries, Union Pacific Corp.’s subsidiary USPCI, WH Tank Lines and McDonald’s.

Although a similar roundup in Granada Hills last August drew about twice as many cars, officials said the Unocal event attracted more business than they expected and pronounced it a success.

“There ought to be more of them,” declared Richard Stegemeier, president, chairman and chief executive officer of Unocal Corp. Stegemeier said Unocal’s cost was about $150,000 for the cleanup.

The old motor oil will be recycled in fuel oil, he said. Standard Brands will recycle the paint. Insecticides will be treated to eliminate toxicity before disposal.

The residue of numerous home improvement projects and yard maintenance chores lay spread out in the parking lot. Also apparent was evidence of the type of person who pitches in around the house.

That’s how Arlette Teora, 67, a Manhattan Beach housewife, ended up at the Wilmington cleanup. Teora’s son, Robert, had told her about the roundup after reading about it in a newspaper.

“Mom, get rid of all the old paint cans,” he said, according to her recollection.

Teora said she gathered paint from her garage and his garage, as well as from her neighbor’s.

Her son had originally planned to drive to the refinery for the drop-off, but something came up, she said.

“I got stuck with it,” she said. “It’s always that way.”