subject: Absorbent Spill Kits - Why Small Portable Spill Kits Are Perfect for Cleaning Spills Up Quickly [print this page] Absorbent Spill Kits - Why Small Portable Spill Kits Are Perfect for Cleaning Spills Up Quickly
Small spills aren't necessarily very dramatic, but they can still cause problems. Find out how to take care of them quickly, and the best absorbent spill kits to do that.
If a spill is big, you have to worry about containing it first, possibly with spill berms. But if a spill is truly very minor, you could just take care of it right then and there -- provided you have the right absorbent spill kit handy.
But what kind of features would the right absorbent spill kit need to have? Look for the following features:
1) Portable
It has to be small enough to be portable. A 5-gallon bucket kit is the perfect size for taking care of small spills, and you can quickly move them around. If there's a spill across the hall, or in another room, you can just grab it and take it over to where you need to clean up a spill or leak.
2) Easy to store
In order to be most useful, a small spill kit also needs to be easy to store. A small bucket kit can be fit into a closet, or under a desk, or anywhere else where it will be easily accessible should the need for quick clean-up arise.
3) High quality absorbents
In order to take care of spills properly, your handy bucket kit needs to be stocked with high quality absorbents. You don't want to discover the hard way that the absorbents leave smears and oil slicks on the floor.
4) The proper absorbents
Here's a very important point. You need to know whether the spills likely to happen in your place will be mostly oil-based, involving gas, oil, diesel, or other oil-based chemicals? Maybe they even involve hazardous chemicals of a wider variety, including water-based ones. Then again, you may have to cope with all sorts of spills.
Fortunately, absorbent spill kits are available in three major categories (in addition to some specialty kits). Those are universal kits, oil only kits and hazmat kits.
How do you decide on the proper absorbents? For most situations, a universal kit will fit the bill. However, if you have mostly oil-based chemicals at your facility, and you may have to clean them up even in situations where there's water, such as during a rain fall, then you should choose an oil-only kit. That's because it will repel water, so your absorbent socks or pads and such won't become waterlogged and won't absorb the real trouble maker.
