Green & Lean

Two aspects of disposing of UPF products at the end of their useful life need to be considered. The first is if any type of certification is required to dispose of these materials and the second is if any type of media was stored in the product other than water. The short answer to both is that there is no known certification required at the federal level based on the information published at this time regarding the cleanliness, or decontamination level, of any recyclable material. There may be more restrictive regulations at the state, local county, town, or city level, as well as the recycler’s own acceptance criteria. The Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) offers many state specific regulations regarding recycling. There is a plethora of information listed by state that can be researched depending on the location from which the product is being recycled. The current level of regulation at this time is not that limiting with materials that are considered safe, but likely will become more restrictive with future legislation. The recycling center processing the material would likely be the best source of information locally on what can or cannot be processed.

Products produced by UPF companies that have had no contact with the storage of any hazardous materials can be safely and conveniently recycled simply by rinsing out any sediment that may be present in them. UPF companies primarily produce products that are made from copolymer polypropylene (COPP). From a recycling standpoint it would be processed as polypropylene (PP). Most products produced can be classified as industrial plastics as opposed to post consumer. If
primarily used for water storage, they can be safely processed as non-hazardous scrap industrial polypropylene which is typically identified with the number “5” recycling symbol as shown to the left.
Most products produced have carbon black added as a colorant and to provide UV blocking protection. This may be a minor limitation with acceptance at some recyclers.

One area that is not as clear regarding recycling of UPF tanks is if they are contaminated with chemicals of special concern as defined by the EPA, such as PFAS. In Fire product applications this is
likely to just be class B foams such as AFFF. Fortunately, this is less frequently used as a firefighting media, so there are fewer tanks involved. Recycling these tanks by repurposing them to another firefighting application may be a better option once they have been decontaminated for use with “Green” foams. If there is a need to recycle the contaminated material, there are a number of decontamination processes that can be employed. While effective, they are very costly and are not 100% effective. Although there are no industry standards that are classified as safe, there are limits that are considered acceptable. There may be recyclers that are willing to take the material, but the responsible thing to do might be to incinerate the material or send it to a hazardous material landfill as a last resort.