Flare "amnesty" not

[CondorAA5A]

When I took my collection from several years, which I'd been accumulating in the garage, the Coast Guard examined each one separately as he said they could not take excessively rusty ones! Luckily my very old ones "just" passed muster.

 

[Alan ashore]

Maybe a naive question but why not perforate them (carefully!) then soak them in a bucket of water for a day or two? Wouldn't they be harmless after this?

Don't ask me how I know, but it's surprising difficult to get all the charge wet this way, especially for the para rocket motors.

It can be done, but at best this leaves you with a bucket of nasty chemicals that, while not explosive, can't really be classed as harmless!

 

[Deleted member 36384]

The truth is that, in the absence of reasonable disposal, you know exactly where most flares go. Chucked off the back. This is probably more true than most recyclables, since it is so easy.

This is the puzzle with most citizen haz waste disposal. If it isn't easy and cheap, it doesn't happen properly.

If the claims being made in this thread are reliable and representative, then the majority are not disposing of them over the side and into the sea. In the UK we had fairly robust and free disposal options e.g. via HRMC until legislation changed that made it difficult for organisations to transport TEPs without a licence. This is why this thread exists, folks are storing them at home.

The TEPs are not classified as hazardous waste in the EU and UK so there are no special requirements for disposal, they are classified as 'hazardous goods' which means they need a licence to transport based on suitable controls for mitigating the risks. This regulation is not applicable to ordinary citizens because the probability and risk is different between a citizen driving around with his flare box containing 8 TEP flares and a chandler transporting TEP flares in bulk. The legislation effectively meant that the organisations had to make decisions to invest to comply with the legislation which would also have had an impact on their insurance, the regulations still allow small scale movement of hazardous goods below a threshold without the burden of full compliance, which I assume is why some chandlers will take old flares if you buy new ones from them. Nearly everyone stopped providing the service but meanwhile your average UK sailor still has a conscious and sufficient respect for society not to illegally dispose of them (which is an offence in the UK).

If you are interested: -

http://www.rya.org.uk/knowledge-advice/regulations/Pages/disposing-of-out-of-date-flares.aspx
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/driving-dangerous-goods-and-special-loads

 

[sailaboutvic]

How to get rid of old flares safely. With just a little white lie .
Take them into the police station and say you fond them .

 

[Deleted member 36384]

... Take them into the police station and say you fond them .

Why would you want to dob in something you were fond of. (-;