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Exploding Cylinder in Garbage

What happened?

On April 11, 2007, an employee of Campus Recycling and RefuseServices was alarmed when a suspected compressed gas cylinder ruptured in therear hopper of a garbage truck. The employee was standing at the rear of thetruck and had activated the blade that sweeps the garbage from the hopper intothe body of the truck for further compaction.  The pressurized gas cylinderwas believed to be concealed inside a plastic trash bag.  The sweepingaction of the blade ruptured the cylinder and the residual contents sprayed intothe employee’s face.

A cylinder in a garbage truck may be hazardous because thewalls and/or valve of pressurized containers are thin enough to be susceptibleto rupture under the pressure of the mechanical sweep arm.  When the cylinderruptured the residual pressure inside of it released and blew its contents andother material into the face of the refuse worker.

What were the Causes and Contributing Factors?

Someone discarded a pressurized vessel in the regular wastecollected by Refuse Services.  Pressurized containers should not be disposedin regular waste streams for two reasons.  First, the contents of thesecontainers are often hazardous or toxic and do not belong in a regular landfill,and second, the pressure vessels present dangerous exposure to refuse workers. 

What Corrective Action was taken?

The residents of the building were re-educated about proper trash disposal and what is allowed in that waste stream.

How can incidents like this be prevented?

Building occupants must be very careful about what items are discarded in the regular trash.  Chemicals need to be disposed of separatelybut there are other items that need to be restricted from the waste stream.

Please see the following Office of Environment, Health & Safety(EH&S) Fact Sheets for further information about proper disposal of variousitems:

Batteries - http://ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factsheets/59batteries.html
Electronic Waste - http://ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factsheets/55electronicwaste.html
Medical Waste - http://ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factsheets/01medwaste.pdf
 Sharps - http://ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factsheets/12sharps.html
Controlled Substances - http://ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factsheets/06contrsubs.pdf
Paint - http://ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factsheets/14surpluspaint.html
Chemicals - http://ehs.berkeley.edu/pubs/factsheets/52hazchems.pdf


Please call EH&S at 642-3073 if you have any questions.
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