Environmental & Risk Management / Waste Management / Track

Track Waste Storage

Knowing where and how your waste is stored on site before it is processed or shipped off-site is vital for ensuring a safe environment for your employees, as well as for complying with government regulations.

For example, in the event of an emergency, you will want to know the quantity and location of the waste that you store on site, its CAS number, whether the waste is hazardous, and so forth, so that emergency response personnel can consider this when responding to the emergency. Without an accounting of this information, you might be endangering the lives of your employees and emergency response personnel.

Similarly, there are many government regulations concerning the storage of waste, particularly hazardous waste, on site. By defining these regulations as part of your waste profile, and then applying the waste profile to a specific instance of waste stored on site, you will have all the information at hand that you require to meet government regulations.

Use the Track Waste Storage task to add or edit the storage properties of a specific instance of waste. From this view, you can work with waste that has the Status of Accumulated or Stored. The task organizes instances of waste by site, then by the type of area (satellite accumulation, storage, or tank area), and then by the specific accumulation, tank or storage area. From this task, you can:

Review Stored and Accumulated waste by its location
Add or edit stored waste records.
Record that accumulated waste has been moved from a satellite accumulation area to a storage area.

Note: When you edit an Accumulated waste record from the Track Waste Storage task, you change the status to Stored. To update Accumulated waste records without changing the status, use the Track Waste Accumulation task.

Once you complete your storage information, you can generate a label for containers holding hazardous waste by running the Waste Container Labels report. Adhere the label to your container so that staff knows its content and whether or not it is hazardous. When it comes time to ship waste off-site, you can generate a manifest for the waste and manually record the manifest number on the hard-copy label. (Or, you could print a new label that includes the manifest number.) See Define Waste Manifests.

Note: Some waste is immediately disposed of upon generation and is not stored. For example, if you generate waste water from industrial or commercial activities, you might route the waste directly to a river as it is created, without waiting to accumulate a certain amount and store it on site; in this case, there is no need to manage waste storage. See Track Waste Discharge.

Similarly, you may want to immediately get started managing your waste by tracking how you ship it, without first tracking how you store it. If so, you can define basic properties of an instance of waste with the Track Waste Shipments task.

Note: In order to track how you store specific instances of waste, you will need to choose from lists of validating data on the waste practices at your site. If you find that the lists do not contain the values you need, a facility manager or other person at your site needs to develop this information. For information, see Defining Background Data about your Waste Management Practices.

Tip: US companies may wish to consult the EPA's "Handbook for Hazardous Waste Containers"(http://www.epa.gov/region6/6en/h/handbk4.pdf) for best practices on selecting storage containers, labeling containers, avoiding spills, inspecting stored waste, and so on.

To view or edit Stored waste:

Note: If you are adding waste to the same storage area as an existing quantity of waste, do not edit the existing record. Rather, create a new record for the new instance. The application adds this amount to the existing record and creates a new record with the Status of Generated to serve as an archive of the waste. See How the Application Tracks Waste.

On the Process Navigator, choose the Track Waste Storage task.
In the left pane, drill down through sites, and then select a specific storage area for that site from the Storage or Tank drill-down lists.
In the right upper pane, the system lists all instances of waste stored in the selected area.
Choose a waste instance, and in the bottom right pane the system lists the details of the instance.
From here, you can view and edit the details or delete the instance.
Click Save.

To move Accumulated waste to a storage area

When you edit an Accumulated waste record from the Track Waste Storage task, you always create a new record with the Status of Stored. In other words, you are always moving some or all of the Accumulated waste to a storage area. To update an accumulated waste record without moving it, see the Track Accumulated Waste task.

To move waste from a satellite accumulation area to a storage area:

On the Process Navigator, choose the Track Waste Storage task.
In the left pane, drill down through sites, and select the specific satellite accumulation area from which you are moving waste.
In the right upper pane, the system lists all instances of waste stored in this tank or storage area.
Select the instance of accumulated waste you are moving to a storage area.
The Edit Satellite Accumulation Area pane shows details for the selected waste.
Do one of the following:
To move all the accumulated waste to the storage area:
1. From the Accumulation / Storage / Tank Area list, select the storage area or tank to which you are moving the waste. Do not change the amount in the Quantity field.
2. Click Save.
3. The application either updates an existing record if a matching record is found, or creates a new record. See How the Application Tracks Waste for more information. The accumulated waste record is removed as all the waste is now in the stored location.
To move some of the accumulated waste to the storage area:
1. From the Accumulation / Storage / Tank Area list, select the storage area or tank to which you are moving the waste.
2. In the Quantity field, enter the amount you are moving to the storage area. This amount must be less than or equal to the Quantity stored for this waste. For example, if the accumulated waste is 50 liters, and you are moving 30 liters, enter 30 liters.
3. Click Save.
  The application updates the record for the accumulated waste to the amount remaining in the satellite area. Using the preceding example, when you move 30 liters to storage from 50 liters of accumulated waste, the application creates a new record for 30 liters of stored waste (or updates a matching record if one exists), and updates the record for the accumulated waste to be the 20 liters remaining.

To add Stored waste:

If you are adding waste to a storage area

On the Process Navigator, choose the Track Waste Storage task.
In the left pane, drill down through sites, the type of storage (storage, or tank area), and then select the specific area within those types for which you want to create a waste instance.
In the right upper pane, the system lists all instances of waste stored in this tank or storage area.
Choose Add New.
In the bottom right pane, you can enter your storage details. Note that you will need to consider the values of several fields to reflect your storage situation. For example, suppose you have 90 gallons of waste which you will store in two 50-gallon drum containers. You would enter 90 for Quantity, Gallons for Units, 2 for Number of Containers, and select the Container Category to be the type of drum you are using for this waste. When you select the specific storage area for this waste - the Accumulation / Storage / Tank Area- this area should reflect the Container Category selection you made.
Use the table below for descriptions of the information you can enter.
Click Save.
The application checks if there is a matching waste record, and if it finds one, it updates this record with the quantity you entered. If there is not a matching record, the application creates a new waste record with the Status Stored, using the information you entered. In both cases, whether it is updating an existing record or creating a new one, the application creates a record with the Status of Generated as an archive of the waste. See How the Application Tracks Waste.

Waste Profile	For this specific instance of waste, choose its general properties by selecting a waste profile from the available list of waste profiles. By selecting a waste profile, you make all of the properties of this profile (such as regulations, gravity, CAS number, MSDS number, and so on) available to this specific instance of waste. The system limits you to choosing only waste profiles whose Status is Active.
Waste Code	This value uniquely identifies this specific instance of waste. This value is generated by the system and is not editable. When you add a new instance of waste to a storage area, the application stores it using the same Waste Code if a matching record is found. If there is no matching record, a record with a new Waste Code is created. See How the Application Tracks Waste.
Date Start/Date End	Hazardous waste storage regulations stipulate time limits for storage. A waste storage record MUST have a start date. To avoid data integrity issues, it is inadvisable to change a Date Start after you have saved the waste record. The application automatically adjusts the Date Start for an accumulation or storage location based on the oldest generation date of waste being placed there. For this reason, it is not necessary to change the Date Start when adding waste that has been accumulating longer than the existing data shows. The Date End is the date the waste leaves the storage area. Entering the Date End is required only when you are shipping or discharging waste.
Quantity	Enter the overall quantity of this waste. For example, if this instance of waste is 90 gallons, enter 90.
Units Type	The system will automatically complete this field with the Default Unit Type of the waste profile. However, if you want to change it, you can choose Mass, Gas, or Liquid to indicate the type of waste. If you are editing a waste with the Status of Accumulated, you are not able to edit this field.
Units	Depending on the type of unit selected above (mass, liquid, or gas), the system will complete this field with the unit (gallon, liter, pint, cubic meter, etc.) that is set as the default for this unit type. If you wish to change this default value, choose another unit from the list of available values. For example, if your waste profile has Liquid as the Default Unit Type, the system will complete Unit Type with Liquid. The system will then present the units you defined for liquids (such as gallons, liters, or cubic meters) as values for this option and automatically complete this option with the unit whose Default? value is set to Yes. If you are editing a waste with the Status of Accumulated, you are not able to edit this field.
Container Category	From the list of available container types, choose the type of container in which this waste is stored, such as a 50-gallon steel drum or a crate.
Container Code	If you need to track the precise container for the waste, and this instance of waste is stored in only one container, enter a value to uniquely identify the container. If more than one container is needed for this instance of waste, do not enter the Container Code, and enter the number of containers as above.
Number of Containers	You may have a group of containers to store this instance of waste. In this case, you can enter the number of containers with this option, leaving the Container Code empty.
Accumulation / Storage / Tank Area	The system will automatically complete this field with the type of storage area (storage area or tank) that you selected in the drill-down list. You can further refine the storage location by completing Container Code to specify the exact container in this location.
Waste Disposition	From the list of available values, choose how this waste will ultimately be handled, such as will it be recycled, processed off site, discharged into the water or air, or processed on site? If you are not sure at this point, you can leave this field empty and complete it when you ship the waste.
Content Comments	Enter any comments about this particular instance of waste.
Site Code	The system will automatically complete this field with the site that you selected in the drill-down list. This value indicates the site on which the storage area is located.
Property Code	If necessary, you can additionally associate property information with your waste.This is optional, as waste is required to be associated with a site. Site and property roughly correspond with one another, with site emphasizes the physical location, whereas property emphasizes the legal and financial aspects.
Building/Floor/Room	The system automatically completes these fields with the location of the Storage Area/Tank that you specify above.
Equipment Code	If applicable, use this field to associate the waste with the particular piece of equipment that generated it. For example, your heating equipment might discharge used oil as waste. Enter the equipment item from which this instance of waste was generated by choosing a value from the existing list of equipment items.
Employee	If the waste is associated with a specific employee, you can complete this field. Otherwise, leave this field blank.
Contact Code	If your site has established a set of outside contacts with whom you may need to communicate about your waste, you may associate a contact with this instance of waste by choosing a contact from the list. For example, you might want to enter the contact that maintains the storage tank in which this waste is stored.
Division/Department	If you wish to associate the waste with a specific division or department, enter it in these fields. This could be the division and department of the associated employee, the division and department associated with the equipment specified above, or the location of the storage area.
Generator Code	From the list of generators at your site, choose the party that generated this instance of waste.