Overseas shipments of dangerous goods (bottom)

The most recent advances in the possibility of reintroducing plastic barrels or drums have made new headway. This kind of recovery treatment refers to the cleaning and interchange of non-integrated parts of the packaging. Unlike traditional recycling, this kind of reuse will be used outside the closed process to pack products with different states and speed up the plastic packaging materials. The degradation, of course, may cause pollution and dangerous reactions between the previous contents and the new contents. Therefore, a correct recovery should have a good understanding of the previous contents, and at the same time, the category of chemicals should be redefined and a recognition system should be established to restore them correctly. TNO will introduce detailed regulations that generally include these aspects and quality assurance plans.
For rigid bulk containers, there are no re-use and restoration instructions in UN recommendations and regulations concerning the transport of dangerous goods. In fact, the reuse of bulk containers and the interchange of parts and composite bulk containers have become more common.
TNO has implemented a study to evaluate the relevant conditions for plastic bulk containers and has reached the following conclusions:
(1) The definition of recovery is related to the reuse of materials other than closed distribution chains and execution activities prior to re-use (including replacement of containers) affecting the performance of bulk containers. In this case, the recovery company shall bear the responsibility of restoring the quality of the container in accordance with UN's original mark. Moreover, it is necessary to establish UN certification procedures for remanufacturing bulk containers.
(2) Europe has developed a procedure that can extend the service life of plastic bulk containers to more than 5 years. Most bulk containers may have the same or similar content in a closed distribution chain and represent samples. Conduct routine tests.
3. Recycling of packaging materials Since January 1, 1999, the International Dangerous Goods Transportation Regulations allow the use of recycled materials on rigid plastic packaging, and impose some restrictions: the source of the materials should be clarified; there should be a quality assurance project for the granulation of materials. The general measurement method for specific attributes of materials should be available; UN routine testing should be performed for each batch of samples at the same time. The ISO/TC122/SC3/WG8 working group undertaking the ISO/CEN standard development work is in the process of refining rules and focusing on material requirements and redefinition of batch samples. The team suggested that industrial packaging should be used as far as possible while carefully removing the contents that cause degradation or very dangerous plastic materials. Batch samples should be limited by the maximum number of materials.
An important consequence of the use of recycled materials is that it has affected the redefinition of plastic raw materials. Since recycled materials may be a mixture of different grades of materials and also have an impact on the degradation of materials in use, new materials should be redefined. The common practice is to classify by category and grade, while the new classification method is to classify by attributes. Research on the possibility of redefining industries and testing institutions more on the basis of attributes rather than grades. In this case, the equivalent of the material should be considered. The problem of material equivalence is very complicated because the performance of the package depends not only on the properties of the plastic material but also on the handling and packaging design.
4. Conclusion The latest developments in plastic packaging and bulk containers for the transport of dangerous goods require a focus assessment of UN recommendations and regulations. Research is being carried out or will be carried out or will be applied to new materials and packaging concepts, reuse of packaging and bulk containers, and recycling of materials and use. At the same time, technological progress must be promoted, new logistics concepts must be introduced, and packaging and bulk containers should be introduced. Meet the technical requirements of dangerous goods transport rules to ensure safe transportation.