Guide to Aerosol Can Disposal 

Since their invention in the 1920s, aerosol cans have taken up an integral role in the lives of consumers and businesses throughout the world. They’ve grown in popularity thanks to their accessibility and ease of use, and are now used to disperse countless different products ranging from paints and finishes to cleaners and pesticides.

While their usefulness has earned them an important role in numerous industries and homes, the potential dangers associated with them have earned them special treatment from governing bodies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We have prepared a guide to aerosol can disposal so that you can ensure that your business’s aerosol can disposal system is safe, cost-effective, and compliant.

Even empty aerosol cans present potential dangers to those in their proximity. This is because while an "empty" aerosol can is emptied of its product, it is not emptied of its propellant. Many aerosol cans use a liquid gas such as butane or propane to provide the pressure needed to propel the product from the can in the form of an aerosol. When the last of the product has been dispersed, the propellant remains inside of the pressurized can.

While liquid gases like butane and propane are excellent at providing consistent pressure to disperse aerosols, they are also flammable and pose a danger to those who handle or store them. For this reason, even an empty aerosol can that might have held a non-hazardous product can still pose a danger when mishandled. The only way to ensure that an aerosol can is truly emptied is by puncturing and draining it.

In December 2019, the EPA ruled that aerosol cans are to be classified as universal waste in order to encourage safe handling and recycling on the part of the countless businesses who use them on a daily basis.

In order to be ruled as universal waste, the EPA first had to confirm that aerosol cans meet each of the eight defining criteria for universal waste. Due to the wide variety of applications and products stored in aerosol cans, there are some exclusions from the universal waste program, including aerosol cans that

1) are not yet waste,
2) are not hazardous waste, or
3) meet the standard for empty containers.

The new ruling allows businesses to accumulate waste aerosol cans on site for up to a year as long as they are marked or labeled as aerosol can universal waste.

Businesses now have the option to either dispose of pressurized aerosol cans through a universal waste handler, or they can puncture, drain, and recycle the cans themselves, which in many cases, is the more cost-effective solution.

EPA Requirements for the Disposal of Aerosol Cans as Universal Waste

There are requirements for the safe puncturing and draining of aerosol cans given by the EPA, and businesses who choose to recycle their aerosol cans in-house will need to ensure that they meet the requirements outlined below.

Installation and operation of the Aerosolv recycling system is easy. The steps for use of the Aerosolv360® are briefly outlined below:

• Attach puncturing/draining unit to a compatible 30 or 55-gallon liquid collection drum.
• Attach the Aerosolv filter to the collection drum.
• Attach the anti-static ground wire to any nearby confirmed ground source.

• Ensure that the aerosol can you will be emptying is compatible with any contents currently already in the waste collection drum.
• Remove cap and nozzle from the aerosol can.
• Insert aerosol can nozzle-end down into the Aerosolv housing.
• Rotate the activation wheel, which will seal the housing that holds the can and then puncture the can, expelling propellant gas and liquid elements.
• Once contents have been fully discharged, rotate the activation wheel in the opposite direction and remove the can from the Aerosolv housing.
• Recycle the emptied steel or aluminum aerosol cans.
• Dispose of collected aerosol can contents according to EPA regulations. Planned recycling of the aerosol’s residual content may be an option too.