While digging into a dark place beneath a lazarette, I discovered an old ditch bag squirrled away by PO, packed with with a dozen or more leaking emergency water packets, a few dozen Dramamine tablets and, YIKES! - at least 2 dozen various, long expired hand flares, 25mm flare shells, parachute shells, smoke signals and parachute flare launchers, some as old as 1998.
As recommended, I contacted the Coast Guard, they said to contact the local fire department or county hazmat disposal site
(The last county-sponsored collection was in Nov 2019 and was mostly a failure. A single location that was about a 30 to 60 minute drive from anywhere in the area and was poorly advertised and the cost ends up being between $7 and $15 per device or more depending on the volume.)
who said to contact the Coast Guard who requires that we carry these things under serious financial penalty for not carrying but have no provision for remediation of the expired pyrotechnics. There are only 3 certified sites in all of the US that can dispose of this stuff. We spend a small fortune replenishing these CG required safety items and there is virtually no provision to safely dispose of them other than, you're on your own, good luck with that but we'll nail you to the wall if you don't do it properly but we won't help you, aand... have a happy day!
OK, time for an adult beverage !
Safe and sane boating to all ~!~