Garbage Collection and the Proper Disposal of Asbestos
Posted on: 18 June 2015
Disposing of asbestos-containing materials, or ACM, is a heavily regulated process. Before you decide to toss your asphalt siding and shingles into the general garbage collection that comes curbside every week, make sure you have an asbestos professional test it for the amount of asbestos in it. Even though anything with less than one percent asbestos in it can be tossed curbside, it still has to be disposed of in very specific ways.
Friable ACM Waste
This is a designation given to anything with more than one percent ACM and can be crushed by hand. Usually, that includes some types of spray foam insulation or sealants. You can toss this with your regular garbage, but you will have to get permission from your city, as well as a disposal tag for the bag that holds all of this type of material. It has to be double-bagged with bags made especially for ACM, and then duct-taped and tagged on top of it.
Non-Friable, Category II ACM Waste
This is the stuff that asphalt siding and shingles were made of and that you cannot dispose of on your usual trash pick up day. If an asbestos specialist says that this type of siding and/or shingles all has to go or you could die, then you need to follow the special requirements to dispose of it. Usually, this means hiring people in HAZMAT suits to come out and tear off all of the affected siding or roofing. Then they saturate it with water so the asbestos fibers do not come loose and float away on the wind. Finally, they transport it via dumpster or dump truck to a plant that can process the ACMs out of the siding and shingles without endangering anyone.
Hiring an Asbestos Removal Team Instead of DIY
It is a terrifying thing to discover that you have something that potentially lethal close to you. While you may want to take action and clear it away right away, you would be safer hiring an asbestos removal team to remove it all, process the right paperwork (where and when needed), and dispose of the ACMs for you. Since non-friable ACMs are only allowed in certain landfills or local dumps, the ACM garbage removal team knows best where to dispose of it so that it does not harm other people or the environment. Additionally, if you have a lot more than just a few garbage bags' worth to dispose of, it is best left to garbage collection professionals anyway.
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