Aug 25, 2006

EPA Publishes Pesticide Container RegulationsSource: EPA

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it had published its final rule on establishing standards for pesticide containers and containment. The agency is required by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act to disseminate the regulations prescribing methods and standards for container design and pesticide removal from containers prior to disposal.

The rule establishes standards for refillable and nonrefillable pesticide containers. The final regulations include five sections:

• Nonrefillable containers – This section addresses “1-way” or disposable containers and is designed to ensure containers are strong and durable, minimize human exposure during handling and facilitate container disposal and recycling.
• Refillable containers – This section addresses containers that are intended to be refilled and reused more than once. This section ensures that containers are strong and durable, minimize cross contamination of pesticides distributed in refillable containers and encourages the use of refillable containers to help reduce disposal problems.
• Repackaging – This section describes procedures for repackaging pesticides into refillable containers and applies to anyone who refills pesticide containers for sale.
• Labeling – This segment of the rule includes instructions on how to properly clean pesticide containers and a statement identifying the container as nonrefillable or refillable.
• Containment structures – This section describes the standards for secondary containment structures at certain bulk storage sites and for containment pads at certain dispensing operations.

The rule applies to retailers, distributors, commercial applicators, refillers, registrants and custom blenders.

An outline of the key requirements of the new regulations is available at www.epa.gov/pesticides/regulating/container_requirements.pdf.