Ontario Gets Even Tougher On Hazardous and General Waste

Ontario Gets Even Tougher On Hazardous and General Waste
Manufacturers, trucking companies and disposal sites handling waste must ensure that they don’t harm human health and safety or the environment. If they don’t, they could see life through an iron curtain.
- By Isaac Rudik

When it comes to insisting that businesses properly store and dispose of hazardous and other wastes, Ontario’s Ministry of Environment isn’t fooling around.

Ian Herd, apparently the sole owner of a numbered Ontario corporation, failed to properly clean up soil-contaminated property he purchased near St. Catherine’s after being ordered to do so by the Ministry of Environment. MOE, not only took him to court to enforce the order but then prosecuted him criminally when he kept ignoring the directive. It resulted in Herd being sentenced to six months jail time. It took the province more than three years to nail him but the ministry’s investigators chased after Herd with the tenacity of a nasty terrier sniffing a meaty bone.

Hazardous waste covers a broad range of materials from manufacturing residues such as acids, contaminated sludge and complex chemicals to biomedical wastes from hospitals, used photo finishing chemicals and unused cleaning products from homes along with discarded batteries. They require special handling to reduce harming both human health and the environment.
Manufacturers, trucking companies and disposal sites handling hazardous waste must ensure that they store, transport, treat and dispose of these products so as not to harm human safety or the environment. If they don’t, they could end behind bars, sharing a cell with Ian Herd.

Handling With Kid Gloves

The problem with hazardous waste is that even a slight mistake can create a major problem. For example, used oil from one oil change can contaminate more than 3.7-million litres of fresh water – enough to supply 50 people for a year.

Waste may be "hazardous" for many different reasons:

• Acute waste hazards are corrosive, ignitable, infectious, reactive and toxic.
• Chronic hazards will harm human health or the environment over repeated exposure and long periods of time.

Due to their inherently hazardous nature, these wastes must be handled or disposed of with kid gloves, so to speak, to prevent harming health, safety and the environment.

If hazardous products are improperly dumped in the sink, yard or storm drain, or sent to a landfill, they can poison drinking water, damage sewage treatment plants, contaminate soil and air, and poison aquatic life in our lakes and rivers.

Inexpensive Solutions To Costly Problems

Fortunately, economical products are available. A company called Drum-Stor offers several possible solutions.

Its 12-gauge, mild steel, non-combustible containment pan is powder coated for long life. Designed to use inside a building, containment pans will not melt from fire, removing the danger of a pool fire on the shop floor which could endanger lives and the safety of employees as well as the emergency response personnel. It is available in two and four drum sizes. Better still, Drum Stor units can be used outside, as well, next to an industrial building.

The product is suitable for:

• Storage;
• Dispensing;
• Transfer; and
• Collection.

Products such as these offer a wide range of solutions to prevent incurring the high cost of lawyers, professional consultants, clean-up costs, and court and ministry orders. Add in potential fines, penalties and surcharges to clean up the environment, and a container system is like lunch money by comparison.







Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. (www.compliancesolutionscanada.com), Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.

E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.

Avoiding The Landfill Saves Money – And The Environment

Avoiding The Landfill Saves Money – And The Environment
The more a business reduces, reuses and recycles, the less waste it needs to dispose. The less waste, the fewer bins or pickups are required and disposal fees drop. Anything that lowers operating costs adds to the bottom line.
By Isaac Rudik

Not long ago, a 70-year old Ontario hospital was to be razed – right down to the footings and foundation – before being rebuilt. A simple job except the hospital told the contractor that at least 50% of the material had to go somewhere other than a landfill.

Once hazardous material was removed, the demolition contractor physically inspected the property, prioritizing and marking items for reuse. A detailed waste management plan identified a schedule of activities and workers were instructed in proper techniques and workmanship. Materials were handled carefully, maximizing reuse and recycling opportunities.

Eventually, the hospital reused or recycled nearly everything from its old building: Newer windows, door frames and hardware, numerous structural elements and bricks were among the most-common components that found a second life. Over 5,000 red bricks from the hospital were salvaged, cleaned and donated to the hospital, which sold them for $10 each in a fundraising drive, netting more than $50,000 for the organization. The remaining 55,000 salvaged bricks sold for 40-to-60 cents each. A useable generator was sold for $50,000.

In all, the hospital not only reused, recycled or sold off more than half of the old structure, it reduced the cost of the new medical complex that replaced the old building. Best of all, it kept hundreds of tons of perfectly good, useable material from being dumped in landfills.

Practical Recycling

Few businesses tear down an old facility to build a new one but the hospital serves as a vivid – if unusually large – example of how recycling can bring green economies to a company.

Once garbage arrives at a landfill, it is dumped and covered by a layer of dirt. Some of it decomposes over time but water can filter through the waste, picking up metals, minerals, organic chemicals, bacteria, viruses and other toxic materials. Contaminated water, called leachate, can travel from the site to contaminate ground and surface water for miles in every direction.

Landfill hazards don’t stop with ground water and soil contamination; they also release pollution-causing methane and greenhouse gas emissions.

Ontario is a recycling pioneer, the birthplace of the Blue Box. Avoiding disposal fees should be one of the primary goals of a recycling program.

Still, the more a business reduces, reuses and recycles, the less waste it needs to dispose. The less waste, the fewer bins or pickups are required and disposal fees drop. Anything that decreases operating costs adds to the bottom line.

Readily Available

When recycling containers are stationed throughout a workplace, people get in the habit of using them – just as they'll find a trash can rather than toss litter on the floor.

Even better for managers and so-called Green Committees, recycling bins finally come in a wide variety of sizes so the container can fit the workspace where it is used: Smaller bins in offices, larger ones in break rooms or lounges and locker areas, humungous sizes on the shop floor. And if workers congregate in outdoor areas on breaks, savvy companies are stationing handy blue bins to collect newspapers, discarded cigarette packs, drink bottles and other recyclables.

With careful planning and execution, companies of all sizes can create solutions to a growing landfill problem. Selecting products manufactured with the smallest foot print creates sustainability from start to finish. For example, Bullseye Trio bins are made from recycled plastics and offer convenient, one-stop disposal for paper, waste and cans/bottles an all-in-one station.

Because businesses get charged for garbage removal based on the amount, recycling programmes can be built around cost avoidance rather than potential recycling revenues. While the relatively small revenue generated may help offset some costs, it is unlikely they will support the entire program.




Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. (www.compliancesolutionscanada.com), Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.

E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.

Don’t Drink The Untested Water

Don’t Drink The Untested Water
Even without neglect, cost-cutting or carelessness, a private company or government body can get enmeshed in accidental water pollution. Nearly every organisation using water for more than drinking is at risk of causing environmentally damaging water pollution.
– by Isaac Rudik

It seems that every week, the news media carries another report of how either a community water treatment facility or an industrial plant discharge contaminated water either because of equipment failure, improper or inadequate treatment and inspection, or simple carelessness.

The tragic story of what happened in Walkerton, Ontario is a case study on how to do everything wrong. But even without neglect, cost-cutting or carelessness, a private company or public organisation can become enmeshed in creating water pollution by accident.

Take the case of Beaverlodge, British Columbia, a small town not far from Whistler.

It was fined $20,000 after more than 12,000 fish died when an algal bloom feeding on the town's sewage outflow contaminated a stream. In addition, the community was required to install an aeration system at a cost of over $1-million. The algal bloom went unnoticed during regularly scheduled inspections and maintenance.

Likewise, an Ontario food manufacturing plant was fined after accidentally discharging by-products from disinfectants used in the processing line into a sewage system. At the same time, provincial inspectors found that waste left over during processing also were being disposed of improperly, creating an additional water pollution risk.

In fact, nearly every business or government body that uses water for more than drinking is at risk of causing environmentally damaging water pollution. And although clean-up can be costly, complex and lengthy, preventing the problem from occurring is relatively inexpensive, easy and readily do-able.

Multisource Problems

So many organic and inorganic compounds can cause water pollution that they can be easy to overlook.

Organic water pollutants include:
· Detergents;
· Disinfection by-products;
· Food processing waste;
· Insecticides and herbicides;
· Petroleum hydrocarbons, including fuels and lubricants;
· Industrial solvents;
· Chlorinated solvents; and
· Various chemical compounds found in personal hygiene and cosmetic products

As if this isn’t a long enough list, a raft of inorganic water pollutants also pose a hazard:
· Acidity caused by industrial discharge;
· Ammonia from food processing waste;
· Chemical waste as industrial by-products;
· Fertilizers; and
· Heavy metals from motor vehicles.

Yet simple sampling and testing can detect potential hazards although the most-common form – so-called “grab sampling” – is considered unreliable by scientists. Scientists gathering this type of data often employ auto-sampler devices that pump increments of water at either time or discharge intervals.

Other common sampling methods include biological testing, checking water temperature and the concentration of solid material, as well as checking for pH levels, nutrients in the water, metals, oil and grease, pesticides and hydrocarbons.

Cost-Effective Avoidance

Many basic tests are available in kit form. While not always conclusive, they do provide a kind of early warning on any problems that might be emerging.

At the same time, industrial facilities can reduce the risks by installing safe storage containers for compounds that can cause pollution if they leak. Safe handling procedures are a must as is training employees on the proper way to work with potential contaminants. Spill containment devices are both effective and inexpensive – especially when compared to the cost of fines and lawsuits. Finally, it’s incumbent on plant safety officers to monitor spills, report them immediately if one occurs and take fast action to keep a spill from trickling out of control.



Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc., Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.

E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.

Even Empty Barrels Need Tender, Loving Storage.

Even Empty Barrels Need Tender, Loving Storage.
Supposedly empty barrels and used batteries pose a potentially huge risk – and cost – to companies as they await collection for disposal or re-conditioning.
-By Isaac Rudik

We’ve all seen them as we drive along the expressway or down an industrial street. At the rear of a parking lot next to a factory or warehouse sit a forlorn group of empty barrels, sometimes stacked to the sky, awaiting pickup for disposal or re-conditioning. Yet those empty barrels aren’t truly empty for they all contain the residue of the liquid or vapour product they once contained.

In fact, supposedly empty barrels are anything but and pose a potentially huge risk – and cost – to companies as they sit, alone and forgotten, awaiting collection. The reality is that even “empty” barrels need tender, loving storage. At the same time, useless old batteries waiting for pick-up pose a hazard to a business, the surrounding community and the environment.

Some 90% of the residue in both empty barrels and used batteries are toxic and pose a serious hazard. Improper storage – even the weather – can result in leaks of the residue material into the ground. If it happens, the resulting expense to the facility in cleanup and fines can run into six figures.

Ignoring Hazards

Too many companies ignore the potential hazard posed by seemingly empty barrels.

For example, two years ago a manufacturer east of Toronto was engulfed in flames that sent three employees to hospital and took fire fighters more than six hours to extinguish. The blaze started when a worker was using a welding torch to cut supposedly empty barrels in half to prepare them for pickup. For nearly a decade, the business had been cutting barrels to reduce the storage space needed while they waited for a monthly collection without a problem.

But then luck ran out.

The welding torch’s intense heat coupled with a week of hot weather set off a spark, igniting built-up fumes inside a barrel which had been sitting outside, unprotected from the unrelenting, scorching sun beating down. The blaze ignited other barrels and before the fire department arrived on the scene, the factory itself caught fire. The place was totalled.

While insurance covered much of the cost of cleaning up the remains and re-building the facility, the process took seven months which meant being out of business for more than a half-year. What wasn’t covered, though, were the hefty fines levied by the province for improperly storing hazardous material and exposing workers to a serious health risk. Legal fees for negotiating with the government, settling suits brought by injured workers, and paying nearby businesses for lost revenue that were forced to shutter their doors for a few days during and after the fire added to the total cost of improper storage.

Yet even without a fire, used barrels and old batteries can cause problems for a business. They can easily leak, causing residue material to seep into the ground which will lead to costly soil remediation projects with the possibility to sample and test nearby potable water sources for contamination and clean up.

Proper Storage and Disposal

As the fire-ravaged factory learned, there is no such thing as an “empty” container. Drums should be completely drained, properly bunged and promptly returned to a drum re-conditioner or properly disposed of quickly. Moreover, they should not be kept under pressure, cut, welded, brazed, soldered, drilled, ground or exposed to heat, sparks, static electricity and other potential ignition triggers.

Here’s the good news.

There is a smart and cost-effective way to protect against potential problems caused by storing empty barrels and old batteries improperly: Modular spill containment platforms are one type of solution which captures leakage risk and avoids unforeseen events or accidents causing a problem. Better still, these solutions cost a fraction of the cost of fines, which can hit upwards of $250,000.00, and possible worker comp claims and lawsuits – and that’s before adding in clean-up costs which will be even greater.

When you leave work today, look out back at the barrels and batteries many industrial businesses find piling up awaiting collection. Remember that those empty barrels need tender, loving storage.

Isaac Rudik is a compliance consultant with Compliance Solutions Canada Inc. , Canada’s largest provider of health, safety and environmental compliance solutions to industrial, institutional and government facilities.

E-mail Isaac at irudik@csc-inc.ca or phone him at 905-761-5354.