Managing Chemicals and Hazardous Waste
What counts as hazardous waste?
Hazardous waste is any excess material that causes harm to human health or the environment. This can include corrosive, carcinogenic, toxic, flammable, or explosive substances. Some common hazardous wastes include used oil, paint residues, batteries, light bulbs, various chemicals, and electronic waste containing dangerous components.
Make use of practical waste containers and recyclable sorting containers with clear labels to separate the different types of waste and residue products found in the business. When there is no doubt about where the waste should be collected, the risks of something going wrong are reduced.
Which materials count as chemicals?
The Irish Health and Safety authority define chemicals as "any element or compound, on its own or admixed, as it occurs in the natural state or as produced, used or released, including release as waste, by any work activity". This may sound a bit vague to those who are not knowledgeable about chemistry, but in short, it means that chemicals are everywhere around us.
What we need to be aware of are which chemicals are harmful to people, animals, and the environment. All hazardous chemical products must be classified, labeled, and packaged according to the rules in the EU's CLP regulation, which stands for Classification, Labelling, and Packaging (No. 1272/2008). HSA's Code of Practice text on Chemical Agents and Carcinogens contains more information on exact standards to be met.
Storage of hazardous chemicals
If a company stores chemicals, there is always a risk of spills and leaks. It is important to prevent this from causing harm to people and the environment or dangerous chemical reactions.
What's the best way to store chemicals?:
- Chemicals should be stored in ventilated chemical cabinets, environmental cabinets, acid cabinets, or in chemical storage units.
- Store chemicals separately if spills from them can cause dangerous chemical reactions when mixed.
- Use, for example, collecting containers, spill basins, spill protection or spill trays to collect spills.
- Do not store acids together with bases, strong acids together with organic substances, or strongly oxidising substances together with oxidisable substances.
- Store chemicals so that unauthorised persons cannot access them, for example, in lockable chemical cabinets.
How should you handle hazardous waste?
Hazardous waste includes materials that cause harm to human health or the environment. This can include corrosive, carcinogenic, toxic, flammable, or explosive substances. Some common hazardous wastes include used oil, paint residues, batteries, light bulbs, various chemicals, and electronic waste containing dangerous components.
Hazardous waste should never be thrown in the rubbbish, mixed with other waste, or poured down the drain. As a private individual, you can hand in your hazardous waste at a recycling center. The requirement for waste sorting applies to both private individuals and companies, but for companies, there are special rules on how the hazardous waste should be sorted, documented, and transported, which are important to know.
As a business owner, you are responsible for knowing how your hazardous waste affects the environment and health as well as the rules for handling and classification of the waste. You are also expected to document exactly the type of hazardous waste that is present in your business and prevent its formation. Additionally, you are responsible for ensuring that the transporter and recipient of the waste have the necessary permits.
The Irish Evironmental Protection Agency's waste register
In Ireland, all companies in the country must report to the Irish Environmental Protection Agency's waste register when the business releases its hazardous waste. This affects all operations that produce, transport, collect, broker, trade, or process hazardous waste.
The waste register contributes to a clearer picture of the flow of hazardous waste in Ireland, increasing the opportunities for the waste to be handled correctly. Almost 400,000 tonnes of hazardous waste are generated per year in Ireland. To achieve the environmental goal of a non-toxic environment and promote the development towards a circular economy, the reuse of waste must increase and the amount of waste must decrease.
On the Irish Environmental Protection Agency's website, you will find guidelines and support as a business owner for working with hazardous waste.
Link to: https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/waste/hazardous-waste/
Ask us about waste sorting solutions!
If you have any questions about, for example, environmental cabinets or containers for waste sorting, you are welcome to contact us. We're always happy to help!
Here you can find all of our chemical management products
