Spill Kit Contents - What do you Need and Why

What do you need and why?

Making sure you've got the right tools for the job is not something you want to leave to chance when talking spill kits. The last thing you want to discover when you go to use a kit, is that it's not designed for the spill you're cleaning up. 

Did you know you are breaking the law to not be prepared to protect against this happening? Plus, free flowing hazardous products generally introduce fire risks, health hazards and all kinds of environmental disasters that we all want to avoid. 

And yes, it does matter which type you buy. Check out our post here if you want to know "Which Spill Kit to Choose"

Where are you going to need to use it?

The location of your potential spill and who is going to use the kit is the next thing to consider. 

For example, if you store 205l barrels of oil in a warehouse and they never move from there, it's unlikely that those barrels are going to spill anywhere else so you could have an On Site Spill Kit nearby that doesn't need to be portable. This is useful as 200+ litre kits tend to be large, so static is better. 

Alternatively, an engineer working on boilers might carry a spill kit in case of small fuel/oil spills and will want it to be easily carried in and out of where they are working. Ideally, it's something they can have on hand in their car or van, so a Portable Spill Kit that can go over the shoulder would be ideal. These types of kit also tend to be for small to medium spills which would work perfectly for the engineer, but not for the warehouse barrels. 

Volume is Key

It is critical to make sure that the size of the kit you choose, matches the size of the spill you could be fighting. Think, "what's the worst that could realistically happen."

Trust us, nobody wants to be in a situation where 500 litres of hazardous product is pooling towards drains, covering stock, going into building foundations... and the person tackling it is stood with just 30 litres worth of spill pads. That is going to end exactly how you're imagining.

On the other hand, save your money if you're only storing 10L containers and it's unlikely that you'll lose more than one or two containers' worth in a single incident. You can hold a smaller kit, then if you do have a spill, take advantage of lower cost refills (we sell these)  and just restock.

Spill Kit Contents

Most spill kits are made up of a combination of the below, depending on what it's used for. 

Contents Examples:

• Carrier - varies from bags, to buckets and boxes
• Loose Absorbents - pads, booms/socks, granules
• Disposal Bags - bag up all hazardous waste to be properly disposed of
• Cable/Zip Ties - to secure the hazardous waste bagged
• Damming Clay - very useful to plug leaking containers
• Drain Covers - self explanatory, stops products entering drainage system
• PPE - some include protection like eye wear or gloves

And whilst this list might be useful for reference, remember it matters more what you are using it on, where and the volume it's tackling to make sure it's the right kit for the job.

Shop our full Spill Kit Collection Here