Are all green spill kits compliant?
The short answer is “no”.
In November 2018 the Australian Spill Control Industry Association, the AusSpill association, published voluntary product quality guidelines for industry participants. These guidelines set out appearance, labeling, packaging and performance parameters for spill kits. Spill kits in this range, manufactured and sold by Spill Station Australia, comply with these guidelines.
The guidelines have been designed to be a first step in overcoming a range of significant shortfalls. One of those points of confusion is the lack of uniform appearance. Currently spill kits are sold in a range of colours including yellow. Australian Standard AS4123 identifies yellow bins for depositing clinical waste. To overcome this glaring conflict, AusSpill selected bright lime green bins as, unlike yellow bins, this colour is not in conflict with exisiting Australian Standards.
The other critical part of the quality guidelines is that for a spill kit to be compliant, the absobent claims must be confirmed by independent laboratory testing using the British Standard Test Method BS7959-1.
The AusSpill Quality Guidelines also has requirements for labelling, inspection tagging and maintenance.
A green bin is not enough. If your spill kit carries the AusSpill mark of compliance, you can be confident you have an AusSpill Quality Compliant Spill Kit.