A Spill Kit Scenario
It’s just another day in the warehouse when all of a sudden a loud crash alerts you to danger. A drum has fallen, draining its contents onto the floor. In the fight to clean spills, absorbents are your best friend, which is why they are the main component of any good spill kit.
Absorbents, when laid down properly, minimize the area affected by a spill. No matter what has spilt, be it oil, petroleum, corrosive chemicals, or even bodily fluids, applying absorbents will be one of the first steps you take after assessing the situation. However, it is important you use the right type of absorbent on a spill. Laying down the wrong absorbent can cause more serious environmental or health hazards than the original spill.
Thankfully, absorbents have been created for various types of hazards and have easy-to-read labels and colours to help in determining the right one for the job. For example, oil and petroleum absorbents are outdoor-resilient and often white or brown; white is easy to see when it has reached full saturation and needs to be changed, while brown is for longer term and often serves as a preventative, while not being an eyesore.
For corrosive chemicals and hazardous liquids, it is extremely important to use the right absorbent. Many absorbents have strong chemicals themselves, so if mixed with the wrong type of chemical spill, they can cause unwanted heat reactions and lead to more serious issues.
There are, however, absorbents that are less toxic (thus more environmentally friendly) and created to be more applicable to a wider range of spills. Two great examples of this are the EcoSweep and ChemSorb absorbents. The EcoSweep is a natural, organic, bio-active absorbent that quickly absorbs fuel, oil, solvents, cooking oil, sewage and other messy liquid spills. ChemSorb is a chemical absorbent that is non-toxic and is less powdery than other absorbents, due to its density, allowing for fast and outstanding absorbency. To protect the natural environment and ourselves, we at Ecospill are ready to go to work.