Flare Disposal

Basics

• This page aims to cover how to safely dispose of Pyrotechnic Flares / Flares
• They are required for Boats/Ship, but typically expire after 4 Years or so

Use for Training/Controlled Use Then Standard Disposal

• Especially if done BEFORE they are truly expired, they are still safe to use, just not reliable to count your life on etc
• HOWEVER given they are meant to signal distress, you don’t want to accidentally have SAR Groups Scrambled etc over you using old flares
• Devices such as Gun Launched Flares and Rocket Flares complicate this approach too
• For simple Red Light flares, and to a lesser extent Smoke Flares though, this shouldn’t be much of an issue

Procedure

• Need to check for existing OFFICIAL procedures
• Mainly:
  • Check for a Burn Ban / Burn Advisory
  • Be in an area that isn’t very combustible and have Fire Extinguishers on hand for potential secondary fires
  • Notify Local Coast Guard (and MAYBE Fire Department+Police, although this may be less necessary)
  • Not doing the test on the water/near a roadway would probably help with that aspect too (no concerned call in’s etc)
  • With proper safety precautions in place, activate the flare
  • Once it is fully done combusting etc dispose of properly

Disposal via a Third Party

• Supposedly some Fire Departments/Local Governments or Household Hazardous Waste or Marine Stores etc collect them
  • Granted do they just run into the same issue is the question…
    • Supposedly this was the issue some ran into with Acetylene Gas Cylinder collection
      • They were collecting them for a fee…but not disposing of them properly

External Links

• A Reddit Post on r/Sailing Titled “ Proper Disposal of Expired Flares”
• A 1998 Report by the US Army Corps of Engineers Titled “Alternatives to Open Burning/Open Detonation of Energetic Materials - A Summary of Current Technology”
  • Mentioned:
    • Incineration
    • Wet air oxidation
    • Hydrothermal oxidation and supercritical water oxidation
    • Electrochemical destruction
    • Biodegradation
    • Plasma arc destruction
• Called Open Detonation/Open Burning a “First Generation Method”
  • Closed Incineration with Pollution Controls etc a “Second Generation Method”
    • The other methods discussed were a “Third Generation Method”
  • Much of the aforementioned pushback to incineration was probably due to the Chronic Exposure/Environmental Justice aspect of all that, along with Energetics Storage of the stuff that hasn’t been burnt yet
  • A Mobile OS Pyrotechnics/EOD Incinerator may be a neat project
    • ALTHOUGH at least as with Chemical Weapons it seems like the Alkaline Hydrolysis or SCWO process is scaled up and applied to all that