Abatement Waste Bulking, Bags, and Containers

Material removed from a wall, a ceiling or a pipe does not repack to the density it had in place -- it comes off in pieces with air between them -- and the double bagging the regulations require adds more air around every bag. So the volume leaving the site is well above the volume that was on the building, and a container count built on in-place volume comes up short on the last day with regulated waste on the floor and nowhere to put it. BAGS ARE NOT FILLED TO THEIR NOMINAL CAPACITY either, and that compounds it. A bag has to be gooseneck-sealed, wiped down, passed through a decontamination unit and carried out by hand, and a bag filled to its rated volume can be neither sealed properly nor safely handled. The usable volume is a fraction of the printed one, and the two effects together commonly put the real bag count at several times what a naive in-place calculation gives -- which is the comparison reported here. WEIGHT FOLLOWS THE IN-PLACE VOLUME AND NOT THE BULKED VOLUME, because bulking is air. Estimating weight from the bulked figure overstates it badly, and weight is what matters for the floor loading of a staging area, for the hoist or elevator that moves the waste out, and for the disposal facility's scale ticket. Wet material and any encapsulant applied before removal both add substantial weight that this does not know about. The container is usually governed by VOLUME rather than by its weight rating, because bagged abatement waste is bulky and light, and the container is lined regardless. AND THE WASTE IS REGULATED FROM THE MOMENT IT IS BAGGED. It is manifested, it goes to a permitted facility that accepts that waste stream, and the paperwork follows it there -- so the container count is a logistics number with a compliance obligation attached to every one of them. A quantity estimate. It does not classify the waste, determine whether the material is regulated, or select the disposal facility; those follow from the survey and the applicable federal, state and local rules, which differ. It does not address the containment, the decontamination unit, the negative air system, the work practices, the worker protection, or the air monitoring and clearance that surround the removal, and it does not size the staging area or evaluate the floor loading it needs. The applicable EPA, OSHA and state regulations, the project design and specifications, and the licensed abatement contractor govern.

in-place volume = area x thickness; bulked volume = that times a bulking factor of about 1.5 to 2.5; bag count = bulked volume / (bag volume x the fill fraction); WEIGHT follows the IN-PLACE volume, because bulking is air; container count = bulked volume / the container volume.

The abatement waste quantity relations by name. Removed material does not repack to its in-place density and double bagging adds air around every bag; a bag must be gooseneck-sealed and hand-carried, so it is not filled to its nominal capacity. Containers are usually governed by VOLUME rather than by their weight rating. The waste is regulated, manifested, and goes to a permitted facility. It does not classify the waste or select a facility. The applicable EPA, OSHA and state regulations, the project design and specifications, and the licensed abatement contractor govern.

Three multiplications on a bulking factor the reader supplies; no regulation text is reproduced.

Estimate. AHJ and licensed professional govern.

Field names used by the API: area_ft2, thickness_in, bulking_factor, bag_volume_ft3, bag_fill_fraction, material_density_pcf, container_volume_yd3, in_place_volume_ft3, bulked_volume_ft3, bulked_volume_yd3, usable_bag_volume_ft3, bag_count, naive_bag_count, waste_weight_lb

• The bulking factor is entered it depends on the material and how it comes offthe licensed abatement contractor
• Weight from in-place, not bulked and wet material and encapsulant add morethe project specifications
• It does not classify the waste or determine whether the material is regulatedthe applicable EPA, OSHA and state regulations