About half of chlorpyrifos use is in agricultural settings and half in nonagricultural settings. An estimated 24 percent of all use of chlorpyrifos is as a termiticide. All of the regulatory actions have different time frames for implementation to take effect, but all will be completed by the end of 2005. Reports from some government agencies and retailers indicate that there is some confusion about what to do with chlorpyrifos products on hand. Use was not prohibited for already purchased products and there is no recall of products.
People can use what they have according to label directions.
There is concern that many people are going to discard their chlorpyrifos products into the trash, which means the insecticide will end up in the landfill. If this happens with large numbers of containers all over the United States, you can end up with more pollution than if the product was used as it was supposed to be. The recommended method of disposal for pesticides is to use it all according to directions on the label rather than throw it into the trash. This distributes the pesticide at a low rate evenly over a large area. Then, sunlight, microorganisms, moisture and other environmental chemicals can break down the pesticide molecules and decrease the toxicity to that of carbon dioxide, sulfur, phosphorous, chlorine and nitrogen, which are already major components of our environments.