Hazardous substances

Items including petrol, solvents, industrial chemicals, agrichemicals, and ordinary household cleaners and cosmetics, must be approved under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act before they can be sold in New Zealand.

Trade Me sellers need to be aware of their responsibilities and best practices for the safe carriage of these items. The key requirements are:

• having a Safety Data Sheet ready for inspection; and
• ensuring the goods are packaged and labelled properly.

Safety data sheets

A Safety Data Sheet (SDS) provides information on the hazards of substances and how they should be safely used, stored, transported and eventually disposed of.

A supplier of a hazardous substance must supply an SDS to the Environmental Protection Authority if requested. Trade Me expects all sellers to have a compliant SDS available on request.

Packaging

All items must be packed adequately as per the Hazardous Substances (Packaging) Regulations 2001, as set out in this guide from a few years back.

All sellers of hazardous substances on Trade Me must ensure their goods are packaged in accordance with these regulations.

Labelling

Labelling information identifies the hazards of substances so they can be managed properly. In an emergency, the labell is often the first source of information accessed.

All sellers of hazardous substances on Trade Me must provide accurate labelling in accordance with Environmental Protection Authority advice.  

Decanting

Chemicals registered under the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines (ACVM) Act 1997 may not be decanted from their original packaging into new packaging and listed on the site.

The EPA has some handy contact details if you need more information:

Hazardous substances: hsinfo@epa.govt.nz
Phone (in New Zealand only) 0800 376 234
Labelling: label@epa.govt.nz