📦 How to Safely Prepare and Wrap Asbestos Materials for Collection
- BCA Contracts
- Dec 2, 2025
- 2 min read
If you're preparing asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) for disposal, especially larger items like sheets, proper asbestos wrapping is crucial for safety and compliance. Our collection and disposal service requires materials to be correctly packaged. These guidelines are based on standard safe working practices for managing asbestos waste.
⚠️ Essential Asbestos Wrapping Guidelines
Asbestos waste must be packaged and labelled correctly before transportation. This procedure protects both you and the waste carriers.
1. Double-Wrap All Asbestos Waste
All asbestos waste, including debris, used rags, and PPE, must be double-wrapped.
Inner Bag: Use a red asbestos waste bag with asbestos warnings. Place the contaminated material inside and seal it with tape.
Outer Bag: Place the sealed red bag into a clear outer polythene bag. This clear bag should be labelled with the appropriate Carriage of Dangerous Goods (CDG) hazard label, if required.
2. Wrapping Asbestos Sheets and Large Pieces
When dealing with larger items, such as wrapping asbestos sheets (like Asbestos Cement, or AC sheets), the procedure is slightly different to prevent breakage.
Avoid Breaking: Do not break up large pieces of asbestos waste. Breaking the material can release dangerous asbestos fibres.
Sheeting: Double-wrap these large items using suitable polythene sheeting. The recommended thickness for large items is 1000-gauge polythene sheeting.
Sealing and Labelling: Label the wrapped material accordingly.
Do not overfill the packages! Usually 2 sheets per package is a two person lift unless they are small sheets.
3. Required Warning and Hazard Labelling
The final package must be clearly identifiable as hazardous waste.
Hazard Label: The package must have a CDG hazard label and visible asbestos code information.
UN-Approved Packaging: The waste must be packed in UN-approved packaging.
Don't Have Labels?: Tell the collection company in advance so they can correctly label the material for you.
🧰 General Asbestos Waste Preparation for Collection & Disposal
The "asbestos waste" category includes all contaminated items.
Contaminated Items: This includes the asbestos product itself, contaminated building materials, tools that cannot be decontaminated, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), and the damp rags used for cleaning.
Clean-up Rags: Used damp rags should be placed directly into an asbestos waste bag. Never re-soak a contaminated rag, as this contaminates the water.
For more details on your disposal requirements in the UK, asbestos waste with more than 0.1% asbestos is generally classified as hazardous or special waste.
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