12.4 Container Rinsing and Disposal

12.4 Container Rinsing and Disposal

Quick Answer: Empty is not rinsed. When the label requires it, triple-rinse or pressure-rinse a nonrefillable liquid jug and put every drop of rinsate into the mix tank. Never dump rinsate in a storm drain. Puncture nonrefillable plastic after rinsing if the label says to. Refillables go back in the closed loop. Leftover mix is applied to a labeled site at a labeled rate. Unwanted concentrate goes to the ODAFF Unwanted Pesticide Disposal Program. Never burn unlabeled jugs.

Empty versus rinsed

A container that has been poured out still holds concentrated film on the walls. That film is pesticide. 40 CFR 171.103(c)(2)(ix) tests disposal methods for pesticides and used pesticide containers. Oklahoma incorporates federal container and residue-removal regulations in OAC 35:30-17-89.1 (40 CFR Part 156.140 et seq. and Part 165). The exam wrong answer is "it poured, so it is trash."

Follow the label on that container. Residue-removal statements are directions, not suggestions. If the label requires triple rinsing or pressure rinsing, do that when you empty the jug, while you still have a legal mix tank to receive the rinsate — not three months later when the cap is glued shut with dried EC.

Triple rinse and pressure rinse

Triple rinse the Core way: empty the remaining product into the spray tank or induction hopper. Fill the container about one-quarter full with water (or the diluent the label names). Cap it. Shake (or roll a large container). Drain the rinsate into the tank. Repeat until you have done it three times. Many Oklahoma and National Core training manuals still teach a 30-second drain as the field habit that makes the third rinse mean something. Current EPA container residue-removal language used on many nonrefillable labels for containers 5 gallons or less specifies: drain 10 seconds after the flow begins to drip, fill one-quarter, recap, shake 10 seconds, pour rinsate into equipment or a mix tank, drain 10 seconds after drip starts, and repeat twice more. Containers larger than 5 gallons are typically tipped and rolled, standing on each end, rather than shaken like a 2.5-gallon jug. Use the times printed on the jug in your hand. Do not drain less than the label requires. Do not skip cycles because the water "looks clear" after one rinse.

Pressure rinse is the alternative many labels allow: empty the remaining contents into the tank and continue to drain for 10 seconds after drip starts, hold the container over the tank or a rinsate collection, insert a pressure-rinsing nozzle in the side, and rinse at about 40 PSI for at least 30 seconds, then drain again. Pressure rinsing punches the side; that hole is also how you later render the jug unusable.

Oklahoma prints its own numbers for commercial applicators, and they are not the same as the label's. OAC 35:30-17-93(3)(A) requires all metal, glass, and plastic containers to be triple-rinsed or pressure-rinsed immediately after the pesticide is removed, using water or a detergent capable of removing the pesticide, with each fill equal to approximately ten percent (10%) of the volume of pesticide originally in the container, agitated thoroughly on all interior surfaces, and the rinsing procedure repeated three times. Rinsate that can be used in a later application of that same pesticide without reducing its effectiveness may go into the containment tank for that product. Note the mismatch and resolve it the safe way: the state rule's 10 percent is a minimum floor, and a label that tells you to fill one-quarter full is asking for more rinse than the floor, so follow the label and you satisfy both. If the jug's label is silent, the Oklahoma 10-percent, three-cycle procedure is the standard you can cite.

Two more Oklahoma numbers ride with that rule. Empty containers shall be stored in a secured area and kept for no more than ninety (90) days following use (OAC 35:30-17-93(2)) — a shed full of last season's rinsed jugs is a violation on day 91, not merely untidy. And when rinsed containers go to a permitted solid waste facility or sanitary landfill, all metal and plastic containers must be pierced each end (35:30-17-93(3)(B)(i)); the rule's other listed route is return, if possible, to the pesticide sales agent or the pesticide manufacturer. Puncturing only the pressure-rinse hole in the side is not "pierced each end."

Never dump rinsate in storm drains, shop floor drains, bar ditches, playas, or wells. Chapter 8 already treated leftover mix and rinsate as pesticide that must go on a labeled site or into a contained rinse system. This section is the jug. The rinsate from cycle one, two, and three is part of the load you are mixing if the tank is going to a labeled site at a labeled rate. If you are done spraying and the tank is clean, you still cannot pour the triple-rinse water down a city inlet behind a restaurant. Apply it to a labeled site, or hold it in a labeled rinsate container for the next legal load of that same product — not as a mystery soup.

Puncture, recycle, refillables, and paper bags

After a nonrefillable plastic container is rinsed as required, many labels tell you to puncture, crush, or otherwise render it unusable so nobody refills it with water, diesel, or a different pesticide. That puncture is a safety step, not vandalism. Do not puncture a refillable container. Refillables are the dealer's or registrant's closed-loop package: keep them labeled, keep the valves capped, and return them. A 7A company that pressure-rinses and discards a refillable bait station or a mini-bulk that still belongs to the distributor has stolen a container and created a waste.

Recycle where accepted. Rinsed rigid pesticide containers may go to a pesticide container recycling collection when one is offered in your area. Ordinary curbside recycling often rejects pesticide jugs, rinsed or not. Do not wish a jug into the blue bin behind a Norman restaurant. If no pesticide-container recycling is available, follow the label's disposal statement — commonly a sanitary landfill that will take rinsed, punctured agricultural containers. Ask the landfill; do not assume.

Paper bags (wettable powders, some granules) are empty when the label's emptying directions are done — usually shake and tap until no more product comes out, sometimes rinsing if the bag construction allows. An "empty" bag that still holds a cup of powder is a pesticide container. Do not use it for trash in a kitchen. Do not burn it.

Leftover mix and unwanted concentrate

Leftover mix is still a labeled pesticide. The legal home is a site listed on the label, at a rate listed on the label, with any preharvest interval, restricted-entry interval, and bee statement still in force. Diluting leftover mix into a ditch to "get rid of it" is disposal, not application. Saving a tank of mixed product overnight is a stability and identity problem; many mixes break, and an unlabeled tank is an unknown. If you cannot finish a wheat job, look for another labeled acre of that same use — not the neighbor's garden, not the shop lawn unless that turf site is on the label.

Unwanted concentrate — leftover, canceled, unregistered in Oklahoma, unlabeled, or frozen into sludge — is not shop-sink material. The Oklahoma Unwanted Pesticide Disposal Program, funded through ODAFF (the Unwanted Pesticide Disposal Fund created in statute for this purpose), holds collection events for applicators, dealers, farmers, ranchers, and homeowners. ODAFF has used those events to take products that were leftover, without labels, or no longer registered. Watch ag.ok.gov for dates, locations, and the current quantity and packing rules. Do not treat a 2018 event's free-pound figure as a standing statewide limit. Do not wait a decade with a wall of mystery jugs in a farm shed because an event might appear next fall; store them locked and labeled as well as you can until the next collection, and ask ODAFF CPS how to get on the notice list.

Never burn unlabeled jugs. Open burning of pesticide containers can release toxic gases, is generally prohibited, and an unlabeled jug means you do not even know the chemistry. A burn pile behind a Kingfisher shed is not a disposal program. It is how you create an inhalation and ash problem you cannot take back.

OAC 35:30-17-91 warns that a commercial applicator who generates pesticide wastes above quantities listed in the chapter appendix, or who stores wastes more than 90 days, can become a controlled industrial waste generator under ODEQ rules and may need a DEQ permit for longer storage, treatment, or disposal. The Core lesson is: do not become a hazardous-waste warehouse. Rinse on time. Use leftover mix legally. Move unwanted concentrate through ODAFF's program instead of accumulating drums "until we figure it out."

Oklahoma pictures: a pickup with three unrinsed 2.5-gallon jugs headed for the dumpster after a pasture job fails this section. A nurse tank rinsed back into the next labeled load is the right use of rinsate. A 7A van with empty bait stations should follow the refillable or nonrefillable instructions on those stations — many are refillable service items, not rinse-and-puncture jugs. A farm shed full of 1990s herbicides with no labels is an Unwanted Pesticide Disposal Program candidate, not a Saturday burn.