Link to printable pdf
End Notes:
- The volume of 119 gallons is based on the Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations and specifically the cutoff between non-bulk and bulk packagings. This flow chart covers intermediate bulk containers (IBCs), which are a type of bulk packaging. (49 CFR 171.8)
- This flowchart is intended to provide general guidance. See the regulations in 40 CFR Part 165 for complete details. This flowchart is based on the scenario that a refiller at a registered producing establishment (40 CFR Part 167) has a portable refillable container to be filled with a specific pesticide and is trying to determine how to do that in compliance with the refillable container and repackaging regulations. The scenario assumes that: (a) the facility complies with all of the repackaging regulations in 40 CFR 165.60 – 165.70 (such as having entered into a contract with the pesticide’s registrant); (b) the pesticide is subject to the refillable container and repackaging regulations (e.g., it is not a manufacturing use product or an antimicrobial product that meets all of the criteria for exemption); and (c) the container is subject to the refillable container and repackaging regulations because it is being used to sell or distribute the pesticide (e.g., it is not a service container, which is when an applicator transfers a pesticide into the container for the purposes of that applicator applying the pesticide).
- The rest of the information in the DOT marking includes the month & year of manufacture; the country authorizing allocation of the mark; the name & address or symbol of the container manufacturer; the stacking test load; and the maximum permissible gross mass. Additional information for rigid plastic and composite IBCs includes the rated capacity, tare mass and gauge test pressure. (49 CFR 178.703)
- The citations for EPA’s repackaging regulations are from the section for “independent” (non-registrant) refillers in §165.70. There are comparable requirements for registrants who are refillers in §165.65.
- You cannot add the UN symbol or DOT marking to a container unless you have the required test data. DOT regulations state that a container “may be marked with the United Nations symbol and other specification markings only if it fully conforms to the requirements of” 49 CFR Part 178. (49 CFR 178.3(b))
- The questions regarding cleaning in #9 assume that the container had previously been used to sell/distribute a pesticide and is received by the refiller with the label of that pesticide still on the container.
For more information:
- See the pesticide container regulations (40 CFR Part 165) or
- EPA’s container web page: https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-worker-safety/pesticide-containers
Compiled by Carol Ramsay
