Waste management in airports, train stations and other transportation centers is not easy as receptacles often fill up quickly with thousands of travelers passing through on a daily basis. But these same receptacles also pose a security risk as they are easy targets for terrorists to hide explosive devices. Distributors who sell to these types of facilities should note two new standards that address blast resistance among trash receptacles.

While the industry has been producing blast-resistant trash receptacles for years, there were no widely-accepted specifications for judging a manufacturer's particular claims of product safety, says the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which helped to develop the standards.

The two scalable standards, ASTM "E 2639 — 09a, Standard Test Method for Blast Resistance of Trash Receptacles" and "E2740 — 10, Standard Specification for Trash Receptacles Subjected to Blast Resistance Testing," will allow purchasers to know exactly how a given receptacle model has been tested against blasts and precisely what a passing grade means in terms of resistance, says NIST.

A trash receptacle has met the standard if it is capable of directing a blast upward, rather than outward, at a given level of force. While any receptacle will fail to direct the blast upward at some level of force, these two standards will allow a buyer to determine that level with confidence, says NIST.

A third standard still in development will eventually help guide the placement of trash receptacles in buildings to minimize safety risks should a bomb detonate inside the containers.




POSTED ON: 8/25/2010