 Coalition for
Responsible Waste Incineration
WHAT IS A HAZARDOUS WASTE?
Wastes come from many sources and can take many forms.
Households, industries and hospitals all produce wastes. What
determines whether a material is a hazardous waste?
Government regulations have set up intricate guidelines to
answer this question. The regulatory agencies involved are the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of
Transportation (DOT).
Regulations often overlap, cross-referencing definitions and
restrictions. For example, EPA's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA) cites DOT's regulations for proper transportation labeling and
container selection.
In many cases, the quantity of waste determines whether it is
hazardous. Households, small businesses and municipalities often
generate wastes similar to industry's. Yet because they produce small
amounts of waste from many sources, they may not be governed by the
same regulations applied to industrial waste.
To be defined as a hazardous waste, a material must first be
defined in the regulations as a solid waste. Regulations are written
based on physical and chemical properties, environmental behavior and
physiological effects, all of which determine the degree of hazard of
each waste material.
A waste also may be determined hazardous if it is listed
specifically in a written regulation. Wastes from a variety of
industries have been determined to be hazardous because of the
processes from which they derive. These industries and processes
include pesticide production, petroleum refining, and ferrous and
nonferrous metal production.
In addition, discarded commercial chemical products, vessels
which contain residues of certain chemicals and the spillage of certain
chemical products are specifically defined as hazardous because of
their inherent toxicity. This list includes such acutely hazardous
materials as cyanides, a number of pesticides and acrolein.
A solid waste which is not specifically listed as a hazardous
waste may still be defined as hazardous if it is ignitable (such as
gasoline and acetone), corrosive (such as battery acid and sodium
hydroxide), reactive (such as high strength peroxides), or if it could
contaminate ground or surface water (such as mercury, lead and other
metals).
Managing hazardous wastes effectively calls for waste
reduction and recycling first. The next best technique is chemical or
thermal treatment, and the last resort is land disposal.
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