Welcome to New Pig questions and answers! In this article, we’re responding to a customer question about shipping flammable liquids that are also corrosive.
Question: Is it legal to ship flammable and corrosive liquids in a plastic drum? We aren’t sure what type of container to use for our corrosive materials since they would corrode a steel drum.
Answer: It may be legal to ship flammable, corrosive liquids in a plastic drum. However, as we don’t know what corrosive materials you’d be working with, it’s difficult to give you a suggestion on the type of drum to use.
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That being said, our best advice to you is to participate in DOT Hazmat Shipper Training.
Every facility that generates hazardous wastes that will be shipped offsite needs to be aware of both the RCRA and DOT regulations that apply to shipping hazardous materials, so this training is crucial for businesses that want to learn how to ship any potentially hazardous liquids.
Here’s what you should know about DOT Hazmat Training:
- It takes about three days.
- You’ll learn how to read the 49 CFR 172.101 Table that lists hazardous materials by their proper shipping name and provides you with the information you’ll need to choose an acceptable container, mark and label it properly for shipment.
- The training will teach you how to fill out a manifest, something anyone who ships hazardous wastes needs to know!
More Tips for DOT Hazmat Shipper Training
One of the things you’ll learn in this training is that the DOT Table can seem a bit overwhelming with all of its columns and sub-columns, but it does contain the information you need to choose your container and, with training, it is much easier to comprehend.
For example, columns 7 to 10 list restrictions that apply. Sometimes, there are volume restrictions. Other times, the material may be prohibited from being transported by a specific type of transportation, such as air.
Any restrictions on container type or size will also be listed.
The catch is that the columns listing the restrictions don’t come right out and say, for example, “You cannot use a steel drum.” Instead, they contain reference codes that must be looked up to determine what the prohibitions are.
Again, training helps you translate and decipher these codes so you can be sure you’ve chosen the right container for your liquid.
Believe me, nearly everyone who has gone through choosing a proper shipping name and the correct container wishes that there was an easier way. But with so many different types of hazardous and corrosive materials, shipping containers and modes of transport, shipping is complicated.
Taking the time to do it right is not only a legal obligation — it helps prevent serious incidents while materials are in transit.
If you’re ready to choose your container, check out our drums here.
1 Comment
Kairi Gainsboroughsays:
04/25/2018 at 12:22 amThanks for talking about how you can’t make a blanket statement that applies to shipping all types of flammable liquid. It makes sense that certain chemicals or materials would have different rules when it comes to shipping them safely. Your point about taking the time to learn the correct way to ship something because it is a legal obligation and can prevent accidents is really smart. If I needed to ship a hazardous material, I would make to contact someone who specializes in that sort of thing so that I knew it would be shipped safely.
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