Before You Ship, You Must Equip
Friday, November 18th, 2011
A frequent question we get goes a little something like this:
“I’ve got a bottle of rhodium that I’ve had for the past 10 years. Can I just dump it down the drain?”
Or,
“I need to get some gold and cyanide to you. Our guy will bring it over to you, okay?”
The answer is no on both accounts. The shipping of hazardous, regulated and non-regulated goods is quite involved. Know the rules before you ship. Rhodium, for example, is generally associated with acids. In the past, people would just dump it into their sweeps. From a purely legalistic standpoint, they may be okay, but that’s really not how it should be done. The problem is not only one of accountability but about the damaging effect improper disposal has on the environment.
Whether you are a jewelry or semi-conductor manufacturer, the first thing you need to understand is that responsibility for the safe handling, shipping or disposal of your hazardous materials lies with you, not the refiner or your shipping company.
Regulations from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency specify the gamut of dealing with dangerous materials: how long they can be stored, how they can be treated or disposed, whether they are an EPA-regulated item, what kind of containers they should be in, what materials can and cannot be shipped on the same truck with them, what information goes on the manifest — even what must be written on the placard on the truck transporting them. The details are quite meticulous.
Even before you ship, your building has to properly be identified by the EPA or your local governing body if you in any way deal with hazardous materials.
Advanced Chemical has a team of experts here who are always available to help you determine how to ship your hazardous materials. Granted, to a lot of small businesses, shipping hazardous materials properly can and do raise your expenses. While it’s true that the many different rules and regulations can be a pain to deal with, the trouble of following them pales in comparison to the nightmare we’ll all experience if something goes wrong as a result of improper shipping. The person generating the shipment can face serious fines for improperly shipping hazardous materials.
We go the extra mile to help each customer with understanding shipping for several reasons. It’s a measure of protection for you and for us. As a refiner, we have a number of regulations we must follow, so, if the paperwork isn’t right or the labeling is done incorrectly, we must refuse the material. Keeping abreast of existing and pending regulatory changes in the shipping of hazardous goods will save us all time and money.