11.3 Triple Rinse, Recycling, and Waste Disposal

Disposal starts before you mix

The cheapest hazardous-waste drum is the one you never create. Mix only what the acreage and the labeled rate require. National Core handling chapters and Chapter 8 storage rules both assume you will have empties, leftover mix, and occasional unusable concentrate. Georgia tests that assumption directly. Rule 40-21-3-.01(a)2(vii) lists disposal methods for pesticides and used containers as a commercial general standard. Rule 40-21-3-.02 requires private applicators to know proper disposal of pesticides and containers. Rule 40-21-5-.02(k) then requires the people who must keep Georgia application records to write down names, concentrations, and quantities of all pesticides disposed of and the manner of disposition. Disposal is not an after-the-fact story you invent at inspection time. It is a labeled procedure you perform and a record you keep.

Triple rinse or pressure rinse when the label requires it

Most nonrefillable liquid pesticide labels require triple rinsing or pressure rinsing at the time the container is emptied. Do it immediately. Residue that dries in the corners will not rinse later, and an unrinsed jug can be regulated as if it still held product. Federal residue-removal directions in 40 CFR Part 156 (the language that appears on labels) are specific enough to memorize.

Triple rinse (typical nonrefillable jug): Empty remaining contents into the mix tank or application equipment and drain 10 seconds after the flow begins to drip. Fill the container about one-fourth full with water (or the labeled diluent), recap, and shake about 10 seconds. Pour rinsate into the tank. Drain 10 seconds after dripping starts. Repeat the fill-shake-drain cycle two more times (three rinses total). For drums too large to shake, roll or agitate so every interior surface is washed, using the longer agitation time the label states.

Pressure rinse: Empty and drain 10 seconds after dripping starts. Insert a pressure-rinsing nozzle through the container wall, and rinse at about 40 PSI for at least 30 seconds while the rinsate drains into the tank. Drain 10 seconds after dripping starts. The probe typically punctures the container as part of the procedure.

Rinsate is product, not wastewater. It goes into the spray tank and is applied to a labeled site at a labeled rate. It does not go onto a gravel lot, into a storm drain, into a farm pond, or onto a neighbor's unsprayed pasture. If you cannot add rinsate without exceeding the labeled rate, you mixed too much or you need another labeled acre that still needs that rate—not a ditch.

Puncture, crush, and never reuse or burn

After rinsing, puncture or crush as the label directs so the jug cannot become a water bucket, a gas can, or a child's toy. GDA states it is against the law to reuse or burn pesticide containers in Georgia. Burning plastic pesticide jugs is not farm cleanup; it is a toxic-smoke and illegal-disposal problem. Household trash is not automatic permission either: follow the label, local solid-waste rules, and recycler rules. Caps are usually removed for recycling; follow the recycler and the label rather than inventing a backyard method.

GDA pesticide container recycling

Georgia operates a GDA pesticide container recycling program. Properly rinsed rigid plastic crop-protection containers can be chipped and used for industrial products such as plastic fence posts and pallets. GDA's public guidance is that collection and chipping locations exist around the state and are subject to change, so this study guide will not invent a county drop-off address or a Saturday hours list. Contact GDA's pesticide program for the current recycling option. GDA also points applicators to industry recycling partners, including crop-container collection supported through the Ag Container Recycling Council (ACRC) network. Those partners have their own size, plastic-type, and cleanliness rules (commonly rinsed HDPE jugs and drums within stated size limits, caps off, dry). If a recycler rejects a sticky, unrinsed, or still-capped jug, that is a rinsing failure, not a recycling shortage.

Do not show up with unrinsed containers and a story. Recyclers and landfills that accept rinsed empties are accepting empty containers, not leftover concentrate in a jug that looks empty from the outside.

Leftover mix: apply it, do not dump it

If mixed material remains in the tank and can still be used according to the label, apply it to another labeled site at the labeled rate. That is use, not disposal. Diluting leftover mix into a farm pond, a woods line, a storm grate, or a road ditch is disposal to water and is illegal. "The pond has algae" does not make an unlabeled aquatic application legal. "The ditch leads to the woods" does not make a right-of-way if the label does not name that site.

If the mix cannot be used (wrong tank mix, broken equipment after mixing, cancelled use, or a product that is no longer legal to apply), stop. That material is waste, and it may be hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Georgia's hazardous-waste program. Unusable concentrate—cancelled, suspended, crystallized beyond use, or unlabeled—belongs in the same mental bucket. Do not bury it, burn it, evaporate it in the sun, or pour it on a stump pile. GDA hosts Clean Day collection events for waste pesticides on at least an annual basis as funding allows, free of charge for Georgia farmers, commercial applicators, and the public when an event is offered, typically with pre-registration. Empty rinsed containers and rinsate are not what Clean Day is for; leftover concentrate and cancelled product are. Between events, store unusable material locked, labeled as well as you can, in containment, and ask GDA or Georgia Environmental Protection Division hazardous-waste contacts how to move it legally. This chapter will not invent a disposal facility address.

RCRA is conceptual on the core exam: discarded commercial chemical product that is listed or that exhibits a hazardous characteristic is not "old spray" you can make disappear with water. Dilution into a pond is still disposal of the waste, plus a water-quality violation.

Georgia records: leftover pesticide disposal is a required line

Rule 40-21-5-.01 says licensed pesticide contractors keep records of all pesticide applications in the business. Licensed commercial applicators not working under a contractor keep records of restricted-use and state-restricted applications. Licensed private applicators are not required to keep that Georgia application-record set under Rule 40-21-5, though federal restricted-use recordkeeping for certified private applicators still exists outside this state rule. Rule 40-21-5-.02(k) is the disposal line that trips people: the required record includes names, concentrations, and quantities of all pesticides disposed of and the manner of disposition. Rule 40-21-5-.03 keeps those records two years. Rule 40-21-5-.04 lets the Commissioner inspect them during normal business hours.

If you triple-rinsed a jug and applied the rinsate as part of a labeled tank mix, the application record already describes the use; if you sent unusable concentrate to a Clean Day or a hazardous-waste contractor, item (k) is where that event lives: product name, concentration, quantity, and how it left your control. Spills noted under 40-21-5-.02(j) do not replace (k). An examiner who asks what Georgia requires you to record about leftover pesticides is pointing at (k), not at your memory of the weather that day.

Georgia scenario: the pond shortcut

At the end of a cotton job, fifty gallons of mixed insecticide remain because the last field was too wet. The applicator opens the tank over the irrigation pond "because it is already a farm water body" and throws unrinsed jugs on a burn pile. Two Rule 40-21-3 duties failed (disposal of product and of containers), Georgia's reuse-and-burn prohibition failed, and the leftover mix was not applied to a labeled site at a labeled rate. The lawful pattern is: find labeled acres that still need that rate, or store the mix only if the label and product stability allow and then apply it; triple-rinse empties into the next legal tank; recycle rinsed containers through the GDA program; if the mix is truly unusable, contain it and use Clean Day or hazardous-waste channels; write the disposal on the 40-21-5 record. The pond is a receptor, not a disposal facility.