Environmental Update (April 2009)

'Tales of a consultant'

Hazardous Waste

Recently, I was asked by a client whether they could deposit cans of cured paint or resin in their general waste skip so I thought it would be useful to include my response in this month's e-bulletin.

This has become a common problem for many small businesses as the amounts and types of waste that are classified as hazardous/special have grown since the introduction of the Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 in England and Wales and the Special Waste (Amendment) Regulations 2004 in Scotland. The regulations also banned the mixing of hazardous/special and non-hazardous/non-special waste as well as the mixing of different types of hazardous/special waste.

As a consequence, this has huge implications for businesses that mix small amounts of hazardous/special waste with non-hazardous/non-special waste as any contamination renders the whole load as hazardous/special.

Getting back to the question in hand, general speaking, paints and resins will contain the properties that would deem them to be hazardous/special under the aforementioned legislation. This can be determined by referring to the Material Safety Data Sheets that should accompany the paint/resins on purchase - failing that, the presence of a hazardous warning label will indicate whether the paint and resins are hazardous/special.

Waste that is defined as hazardous/special should not be deposited in a general waste skip. It is important to emphasise that paint which has cured and is thus solid, can still contain hazardous properties, however, water-based products that are free of organic solvents are not thought to have any inherent hazardous properties. 

It is recommended that a chemical assessment is made of the cured substance (this may only need to be done once, if the substance is used regularly on site). Companies should also consider the guidance available on the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), speak directly to the manufacturer as well as consider the age of the paint or resin as this can effect its hazardousness.

In all cases, the onus is on the producer to ensure that the waste can be safely handled as non-hazardous/non-special.