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Waste storage management is a major issue for industrial companies. The storage of hazardous raw materials is a subject that is generally well mastered (ERP software). But what about your knowledge of the quantities of waste stored and their hazardousness?
Know your waste storage
Preventing risks to employees and protecting the environment requires a sound knowledge of :
- the hazardous nature of stored hazardous waste,
- quantities stored by storage location,
- the risks involved in the event of fire.
This information is useful for prevention initiatives. It is also needed by the emergency services in the event of a fire.
What's more, for certain companies governed by legislation on Classified Installations, this information may be made compulsory by the authorities (Préfet).
Meeting the challenges of traceability
Even today, companies face difficulties in gathering and communicating reliable information.
The first difficulty arises from the characterization of hazardous waste. They are often made up of several residues, forming a mixture whose hazardousness (flammability, toxicity, etc.) is difficult to assess. Unlike chemical products, hazardous waste is not linked to a Safety Data Sheet (SDS). Nevertheless, the Waste Identification Sheet (WIS) and the preliminary analyses carried out by treatment centers to accept hazardous waste are interesting ways of (better) understanding their hazardousness.
A second difficulty is linked to the multitude of waste storage sites. Few establishments collect all their waste in a single, dedicated location. However, the forthcoming dematerialization of waste traceability seems to be on the horizon, thanks to the deployment of the governmental Trackdéchets platform.
Lastly, information on quantities stored by type of hazard is difficult to communicate at any given time. On the one hand, waste containers are not always full (e.g. 1000-liter IBC* containing 600 liters of used oil), and their accounting can sometimes be misleading. On the other hand, waste movements (produced and evacuated) are numerous and therefore not easy to track.
In conclusion, given the stakes involved, it would seem necessary for many companies to set up an organization and/or software to improve the traceability of waste storage.
* IBC: Intermediate Bulk Container