The Australian Standard for the disposal of contaminated waste is AS 4439.3-1997, this standard supersedes all State requirements. The standard requires that contaminated waste must pass the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) USEPA test method 1311, to the levels listed in Table 2 of the “Liquid Industrial Waste Policy and Management Plan”. The results will determine if the contaminated product may be disposed of into lined or unlined landfill. . The test is fundamentally a leaching test, designed to ensure that liquids held by the absorbent will not leach out or leave the absorbent material over time. The Australian standard for hydrocarbons (oils/fuels) is listed below:

Parameter	Allowable Leaching Contaminant Levels
	Liquid Industrial Waste Policy & Management Plans 1994
	Approved Municipal Landfill (Unlined) must be less than	Approved Municipal Landfill (Lined) must be less than
Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons mg/L	<25	<50

Traditionally, any absorbent once it had been used to absorb a hydrocarbon was classified as solid waste and within certain restriction could be disposed of into unlined land fill. While each State had slightly different restriction they all stipulated that the absorbent could not contain any ‘Free Liquid”. AS4439.3-1997 defines the term “Free Liquid”.

With an absorbent, like Sokerol, that passes the above TCLP test ‘Free Liquid” is only that liquid held on or between the particles and is removed by simply adding more Sokerol (absorbent).

For absorbents that cannot pass the TCLP test to the required level as listed in AS 4439.3-1997,all liquids held by them would be classified as “Free Liquid” - that is the liquid will leave the absorbent with the application of time, pressure or more liquid. The result is that such absorbents cannot be disposed of in an unlined landfill.

The disposal of these types of product into unlined land fill (general rubbish) is very damaging to the environment as the hydrocarbons (oil / fuels) will simply leach out and move slowly into the adjacent water table. This is particularly relevant when one considers it only takes 1 L of oil to contaminate million litres of water.

These so called absorbents may be very useful in spill management however they cannot be disposed of in unlined landfill regardless of the quantity.

An example of this would be the Synthetic or Polypropylene absorbents products which pick up oil etc very well but would not pass the TCLP test as the oil can simply be rung out of the product like a sponge. In this case the oil simply sits in the air pockets of the tightly woven material due to surface tension. While the product is an absorbent, all the liquid is technically classified as free liquid and is able to leave the absorbent with application of time, pressure or more liquid.

It is important to realise that this applies to both Organic and Non Organic products. Being organic does not make it non-leaching if it cannot pass the TCLP test at required levels it must be disposed of into lined landfill (registered site).

It is the responsibility of the manufacturer of the absorbent to provide their TCLP test results.

Sokerol passes the TCLP very comfortably and up to 100kg of used Sokerol may be disposed of directly into the general rubbish as long as:

· There are no free liquids.
· It has only been used to absorb hydrocarbons (oil / fuels).
· It has not been mixed with other contaminated waste.

Sokerol Organic Absorbency Test Results (click here)

Sokerol Leaching Test Results (click here)

Sci-Plan Summary (click here)

State EPA Requirements (click here)