Tough new recycling regulations now make it harder for anyone wanting to properly throw away a flashlight battery, fluorescent bulb or cell phone.

New state rules require households and small businesses to think twice before they toss a host of everyday items with toxic components. They can no longer be combined with everyday waste and left on the curb for pickup.

Batteries from flashlights and hearing aids must now be delivered to one of just a handful of collection locations in the south county.

Fluorescent tubes and bulbs have only one legal disposal site nearby: The Napa-Vallejo Hazardous Waste Collection Facility near the Napa County Airport.

Got a broken or outmoded computer, TV, cell phone or radio? Napa's Recycling and Composting Facility near the airport is the one place that will take it all, often for a fee.

The state's decision to end the waiver that allowed common household items to be thrown away as everyday waste took effect Thursday.

Households and businesses that want to follow the law aren't going to have an easy time of it, said Kevin Miller, Napa's recycling coordinator. "Sometimes the law gets out ahead of the infrastructure, which is not to say these aren't justified laws," he said.

"It caught a lot of us regulators a little bit short," said John Kara, an environmental health supervisor with Napa County's Department of Environmental Management. "Now we're scrambling to create an infrastructure."

The first order of business is to create convenient ways for residents to dispose of common household batteries, Kara said.

To residents who may find the new environmental rules frustrating, Miller urged patience. "In one year we'll have a better answer. In five years, we'll have much better answers."

A resident who succumbs to temptation and buries a AAA battery or cell phone among their kitchen scraps will have to live with their consciences, but not the garbage police.

"We won't have battery police. We're not going door to door to determine if Joe Smith is throwing away two batteries," said Ron Baker, a spokesman for the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

By requiring toxic household throwaways to be separated from regular garbage, the state is beginning to re-educate the public, Baker said. "We don't expect there will be widespread compliance by Monday. We're looking at this over the long haul," he said.

Baker compared today's situation with that of 25 years ago, when Californians were first asked to recycle cans and bottles. Today it's second nature for most people to recycle beverage containers, but it took a generation to change society's habits, he said.

"We need to educate people and provide convenient recycling opportunities," Baker said. California is the first state to mandate such a long list of items with hazardous components for recycling, he said.

These toxics are called "universal waste," recognizing that virtually everyone generates these toxic discards as part of everyday living. Special disposal requirements were adopted in 2002, but the state decided only last month to end the recycling waiver, catching most jurisdictions off guard.

Bob Pestoni, owner of Upper Valley Disposal and Recycling and the Clover Flats Landfill in Calistoga, said his company had posted a sign at the landfill announcing a long list of newly prohibited items.

When garbage collectors see a fluorescent tube sticking out of a trash cart, "by law we can't accept it," Pestoni said.

"I think we're in a bit of a learning curve," said Pestoni, noting how few recycling locations there are for such materials.

Some jurisdictions are allowing batteries to be placed in curbside recycling containers if they are put in specially marked bags. Almost no one has figured out how to handle fluorescent tubes and bulbs.

There are several special hazardous waste events Upvalley each year. A countywide collection for electronic materials will be held June 9 and 10 at Napa Valley College.

The Yellow Pages of the SBC phone book has a 16-page section on recycling that addresses many common disposal issues.