How to Avoid Hazardous Waste Weekly Inspection Violations

Sometime in the next couple of months we will be publishing a new eBook about some common hazardous waste generator violations and how you can go about avoiding them. To tide you over until that comes out though, I’d like to take our post today to write about weekly inspections of hazardous waste storage areas and what these inspections should include.

Inspections should be done once a week on the same day. Mondays and Fridays are typically not good choices because they are often spent catching up from the weekend or readying for the weekend respectively. So, once you pick your inspection day you will need to have both a designated inspector and a back-up because you want to do everything possible to ensure you will never miss a week. Record your weekly inspections in an inspection log.

Inspections should consist of the following at a minimum:

1. Is the area free of debris and other materials?

2. Is the ground clean and dry?

3. Are container tops free of spillage?

4. Is the area free of spills or leaks?

5. Are all of the containers in good condition? (Free of dents and corrosion, not bulging, or otherwise deteriorating?)

6. Are all containers properly closed?

7. Are containers labeled with hazardous waste labels?

8. Is the following information on the labels filled out?

• • Generator name and address
  • Accumulation start date
  • Contents
  • Physical state
  • Hazardous properties

9. Is the information on the labels legible?

10. Have wastes been disposed of within the allowable accumulation time?

11. Are the containers compatible with their contents?

12. Are incompatible wastes stored separately?

13. Is there adequate aisle space?

By making sure to check each of these things every week you will ensure that your company is not responsible for any hazardous waste accidents and ensures that you will not get in trouble with the EPA. Keep checking our blog for a link to the full eBook coming soon!