Customer Questions: Can I Mix the Contents of Aerosol Cans

Question: I’m interested in puncturing my aerosol cans, but we’ve got a lot of different things in our cans. Can I puncture everything into the same drum?

Answer: Maybe. While it is true that many different types of aerosols can be safely punctured into the same drum, not everything can co-mingle. It is important to know the properties of any liquids that will be released when cans are punctured.

Check the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for each of the cans that will be punctured. If you’ve got GHS-compliant SDS, stability and reactivity information will be listed in section 10. Compare the SDS for each can that will be punctured to ensure there are no incompatibilities. Even if everything that will be collected is compatible, it’s important to understand what that means in terms of disposal. Remember that the liquid residue being collected must still be manifested—and it is your responsibility as a waste generator to properly label and manifest that container.

Consider, also, how that mixed waste will be handled. For example, if chlorinated liquids are collected in the same drum as non-chlorinated liquids, all of the drum’s contents now need to be managed as a chlorinated hazardous liquid. Typically, this is a more expensive disposal option than non-chlorinated liquids disposal.

When waste streams need to be segregated, or when it’s more economically feasible to segregate waste streams, the recycling unit can be moved from drum to drum to facilitate waste segregation. And depending on the nature of the liquids, it may be advantageous to purchase a separate set of filtration media for each waste collection drum.