Information From Safety Data Sheets For Paint Collection

A safety data sheet (SDS) is a standardised document a supplier must provide for a hazardous chemical product, setting out its composition, hazards, handling requirements and other properties in a fixed 16-section format. The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland's guidance on REACH safety data sheets explains when a supplier is required to provide one and who is entitled to receive it.

The format itself comes from REACH Annex II, which sets out the requirements for compiling a safety data sheet section by section. The European Chemicals Agency's guidance on compiling safety data sheets goes through each section in detail and is the reference suppliers work from when writing them.

Not every section of a 16-section sheet is equally useful for a waste collection enquiry. The table below lists the sections that tend to answer the questions we ask.

Sections 3 and 9 matter most for a typical paint waste enquiry. Composition tells us what is actually in the product, and physical and chemical properties tell us how it behaves, whether it is liquid or set, water miscible or solvent based, and what its flash point is. Between them, those two sections answer most of the practical questions a collection needs resolved early.

A safety data sheet describes the product as the supplier sold it. Once paint has been mixed with another product, diluted, left to react, contaminated with something else, or part-cured in an open tin, the original sheet may no longer describe what is actually in front of you.

This is particularly true for mixed leftovers, old stock of unclear age, or material recovered from a spill. In those cases the sheet for the named product is a useful starting reference, but it is not a substitute for describing the waste as it currently is.

Plenty of enquiries involve paint with no accompanying data sheet, such as stock cleared from a store cupboard, material inherited with a site, or tins that have simply lost their paperwork over the years. That is a common and workable starting point, not a reason to stop.

• Note the product name and brand exactly as printed on the tin, even if the sheet is missing.
• Photograph the label clearly, including any hazard pictograms, batch codes and use-by information.
• Contact the supplier or manufacturer if known, because many can reissue a sheet from the batch or product code.
• Record the batch number or date code from the tin where visible.
• Describe the condition of the material, whether liquid, skinned or part-set, since that affects the assessment as much as the original product.

Before sending an enquiry, it helps to have gathered the following, where available.

• Safety data sheet, or product name and photograph of the label if no sheet exists.
• Approximate quantity and container type.
• Condition of the material: liquid, part-set, mixed or contaminated.
• How the waste arose: leftover stock, spillage, wash-out, or end of a production run.
• Any previous classification, survey or assessment already carried out on the same material.

Keep safety data sheets together with the batch of waste they relate to, ideally as a scan or photograph attached to the enquiry rather than a loose paper copy that can go missing on site. Where several products are involved, label photographs clearly so each sheet can be matched to the right container.

The more of this you can send with the first enquiry, the fewer follow-up questions there are before a route can be confirmed. For liquid paint specifically, see oil and solvent based paint disposal; where the material is mainly empty or part-empty containers, see paint tin and container disposal.