Hazardous waste

Scope

All businesses must evaluate their waste streams to determine how that waste is regulated. Waste programs include:

• Regulated solid waste (garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, etc.)
• Hazardous waste (listed or characteristic wastes)
• Universal waste (certain common waste streams such as fluorescent lights and batteries)
• State-specific wastes (such as industrial liquid wastes or state-listed wastes)
• Used oil

Hazardous waste is regulated from cradle (the point it is generated) to grave (its ultimate destruction or disposal).

Listed hazardous waste is waste that is on any of the four lists of hazardous wastes contained in the RCRA regulations. These wastes have been listed because they either exhibit one of the characteristics described below or contain any number of toxic constituents that have been shown to be harmful to health and the environment.

There are over 700 hazardous wastes listed by name. These include wastes derived from manufacturing processes and discarded commercial chemical products. These wastes are listed in 40 CFR 261 of the regulations.

Characteristic waste. Even if a waste does not appear on one of EPA’s lists, it is considered hazardous if the waste possesses one or more of the following characteristics:

• Ignitibility: It is easily combustible or flammable, such as paint wastes, degreasers, or other solvents;
• Corrosivity: It dissolves metals, other materials, or burns the skin, such as waste rust removers, waste acid or alkaline cleaning fluids, and waste battery acids;
• Reactivity: It is unstable, undergoes rapid or violent reaction with water or other materials, such as cyanide plating wastes, waste bleaches, and other waste oxidizers; and
• Toxicity: It is harmful or fatal when swallowed or comes into contact with skin. It has the potential to pollute groundwater if it is improperly disposed of on land. Wastes are tested for toxicity using the Toxicity Characteristic Leachate Procedure (TCLP).

Hazardous waste characteristics must be determined by testing the waste or a sample of the waste, or applying knowledge of the waste and the process to produce the waste.

EPA regulates hazardous waste generators, transporters, and treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs).

There are three categories of hazardous waste generators:

1. Very Small Quantity Generators (VSQGs, formerly known as Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators);
2. Small Quantity Generators (SQGs); and
3. Large Quantity Generators (LQGs).

VSQGs generate the least amount of hazardous waste per month and LQGs generate the most.

Generators must comply with a specific set of requirements for their specific generator category.

Regulatory citations

• 40 CFR 260 — Hazardous Waste Management System: General
• 40 CFR 261 — Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste
• 40 CFR 262 — Standards Applicable to Generators of Hazardous Waste
• 40 CFR 263 — Standards Applicable to Transporters of Hazardous Waste
• 40 CFR 264 — Standards for Owners and Operators of Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities
• 40 CFR 265 — Interim Status Standards for Owners and Operators of Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities
• 40 CFR 268 — Land Disposal Restrictions
• 40 CFR 273 — Standards for Universal Waste Management
• 40 CFR 279 — Standards for the Management of Used Oil
• 40 CFR 280 — Technical Standards and Corrective Action Requirements for Owners and Operators of Underground Storage Tanks (UST)

Key definitions

• Acute hazardous waste: Any hazardous waste with a “P” waste code (or certain “F” waste codes). These wastes are subject to stringent accumulation and management requirements.
• Abandoned: “Thrown away,” or a material that is disposed of, burned, or incinerated.
• Accumulate: To store hazardous waste on-site for a regulated amount of time before shipping it off-site. Generators have accumulation time limits as well as quantity limits.
• Biennial report: A report submitted by hazardous waste LQGs and TSDFs (and SQGs after 2020) to enable EPA and the states to track the quantities of hazardous waste generated and the movements of those hazardous wastes.
• Central Accumulation Area (CAA): An area where a hazardous waste generator collects marked and dated hazardous waste. Waste in a CAA may only be accumulated for 90 days or 180 days, depending on the generator’s hazardous waste category.
• Characteristic waste: Waste that is considered hazardous under RCRA because it exhibits any of four different properties: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity.
• Clean closure: The process of completely removing all waste that was treated, stored, or disposed in a hazardous waste unit.
• Combustion: The controlled burning in an enclosed area as a means of treating or disposing of hazardous waste.
• Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators (CESQG): Hazardous waste generators who never accumulate more than 2,200 pounds of hazardous waste or 2.2 pounds of acute hazardous waste on site at any one time. These generators are now known as Very Small Quantity Generators (VSQGs).
• Contained-in policy: An EPA policy that determines the health threats posed by contaminated environmental media and debris, and whether such materials must be managed as RCRA hazardous wastes.
• Containers: Portable devices in which a material is stored, transported, treated, or otherwise handled.
• Counting: Totaling the hazardous wastes at a given facility for a particular month in order to determine hazardous waste generator status.
• Cradle to grave: The time period from the initial generation of hazardous waste to its ultimate disposal.
• Designated facility: The TSDF that has been designated on the manifest by the generator. These facilities must have a RCRA permit (or interim status), or be recycling facility regulated under 40 CFR 261.2(c)(2) or 266, Subpart F.
• Disposal: The discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid or hazardous waste on or in the land or water.
• E-manifest: EPA’s hazardous waste electronic manifest system. (EPA plans to have an electronic manifest system in place by 2018.)
• E-waste: Waste derived from electronic components such as computers, cell phones, and televisions.
• Empty container: All wastes have been removed that can be removed using the processes described in 40 CFR 261.7.
• EPA identification number: The unique number assigned by EPA to each hazardous waste generator, transporter, or treatment, storage, and disposal facility.
• Episodic generation: The situation in which a generator’s status changes from one month to the next, as determined by the amount of waste generated in a particular month. If a generator’s status does in fact change, the generator is required to comply with the respective regulatory requirements for that class of generators for the waste generated in that particular month.
• Generator: Any person, by site, whose act first creates or produces a hazardous waste or used oil, or first brings such materials into RCRA regulation.
• Hazardous waste: Waste with properties that make it dangerous or capable of having a harmful effect on human health and the environment. Under RCRA, hazardous wastes are specifically defined as wastes that meet a particular listing description or that exhibit a characteristic of hazardous waste.
• Hazardous waste number: The “waste code” that EPA assigns to each waste (e.g., D002 is the waste number assigned to waste that is characteristic for corrosivity, P042 is assigned to waste Epinephrine).
• Interim status facilities: TSDFs that were already in operation when the RCRA standards were established and that are operating under less stringent standards until they receive a permit.
• Land disposal: Placement in a landfill, surface impoundment, waste pile, injection well, land treatment facility, etc., for disposal purposes.
• Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR): The prohibitions on the land disposal of hazardous waste that has not been adequately treated to reduce the threat posed by such waste.
• Large Quantity Generators (LQGs): Facilities that generate more than 1,000 kg of hazardous waste per calendar month, or more than 1 kg of acutely hazardous waste per calendar month.
• Listed wastes: Wastes that are considered hazardous under RCRA because they meet specific listing descriptions. These lists are found in 40 CFR 261, Subpart D.
• Manifest (universal hazardous waste manifest): The paperwork that accompanies hazardous waste from the point of generation to the point of ultimate treatment, storage, or disposal. Each party involved in the waste’s management retains a copy of the RCRA manifest, which contains specific information about the waste.
• Military munitions: Ammunition products and components produced for or used by the military for national defense and security.
• Mixed waste: Radioactive waste that is also a hazardous waste under RCRA. Such wastes are jointly regulated by RCRA and Atomic Energy Act.
• Permitted facilities: Facilities that have obtained a TSDF permit from EPA or the state agency to engage in the treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste.
• RCRA: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which is the nation’s solid and hazardous waste management law.
• Recycling: The separation and collection of wastes, their subsequent transformation or remanufacture into usable or marketable products or materials, and the purchase of products made from recyclable materials.
• Satellite Accumulation Area (SAA): The accumulation of up to 55 gallons of hazardous waste at or near the point of generation that is under the control of the operator.
• Small Quantity Generator (SQG): A facility that generates between 100 kg and 1,000 kg of hazardous waste per calendar month.
• Solid waste: Any garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and from community activities. For the purposes of hazardous waste regulation, a solid waste is a material that is discarded by being:
  • Abandoned,
  • Inherently waste-like,
  • A certain waste military munition, or
  • Recycled.
• Tanks: Stationary containers used to store or treat hazardous waste.
• Transporter: Any person engaged in the off-site transportation of hazardous waste, used oil, or universal waste.
• Treatment: Any method, technique, or process designed to physically, chemically, or biologically change the nature of a hazardous waste.
• Treatment standards: The Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) criteria in 40 CFR 268 that hazardous waste must meet before it is disposed.
• Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facilities (TSDFs): Facilities engaged in the treatment, storage, or disposal of hazardous waste.
• Underground storage tank (UST): A tank and any underground piping connected to the tank that is used to contain an accumulation of regulated substances and that has at least 10 percent of its combined volume underground.
• Universal wastes: Commonly recycled wastes with special management provisions intended to facilitate recycling. There are four categories of universal wastes: batteries, pesticides that have been recalled or collected in waste pesticide collection programs, lamps, and mercury-containing equipment.
• Used oil: Any oil that has been refined from crude or synthetic oil that has been used and, as a result of such use, is contaminated by physical or chemical impurities. Used oil may be managed under the relaxed management standards at 40 CFR 279.
• Very Small Quantity Generator (VSQG): A generator who never accumulates more than 2,200 pounds of hazardous waste or 2.2 pounds of acute hazardous waste at any one time. Formerly known as Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generator (CESQG).
• Waste minimization: Reducing the amount of hazardous waste generated prior to any treatment, storage, or disposal of the waste.

Summary of requirements

• Make a waste determination on all of your waste streams (e.g., compact fluorescent light bulbs, batteries, used oil, production wastes, wastewater, used oil, spent solvents, etc.).
• Count the total amount of hazardous waste generated in a calendar month.
• Determine your hazardous waste generator category (i.e., VSQG, SQG, or LQG).
• Notify EPA of your waste activities and obtain an EPA ID Number (SQGs and LQGs only).
• Manage the waste according to your hazardous waste generator category.
• Make sure containers are in good condition, not leaking, rusting, or bulging.
• Do not mix incompatible wastes.
• Keep all containers closed unless adding or removing waste.
• Mark and label waste containers with the words “Hazardous waste” and the accumulation start date, and identify the hazards of the waste. Use one of the following methods:
  • Identify the hazardous characteristics of the waste (Ignitable, corrosive, reactive, or toxic);
  • Use an OSHA Hazard Communication label or GHS pictogram;
  • Follow the DOT labeling requirements at 49 CFR 172;
  • Use an NFPA-approved label; or
  • Other marking that will be easily understood by emergency responders.
• Train employees to work safely with and around the hazardous waste at the facility according to their particular job duties. Training must be done within six months of the employee beginning work or transferring to a new job and must be repeated annually. Training may be classroom, on-the-job, or electronic, but must be tailored to the specific responsibilities of the employee.
• Prepare the waste for transport. Add the hazardous waste number to the hazardous waste label. Be sure the waste is packaged, labeled, marked, and placarded according to DOT’s requirements at 49 CFR Parts 172, 173, 178, and 179, as well as EPA’s pre-transport requirements at 40 CFR 262 Subpart C.
• Ship the waste offsite within the required time limit for your generator category. Use a transporter that has an EPA ID Number.
• Ship waste to a qualified facility. SQGs and LQGs must use a manifest.
• Prepare for emergencies. Become familiar with your state and national reporting requirements for spills of hazardous materials.
• Ensure your hazardous waste accumulation area is equipped with the following:
  • Internal communication or alarm system capable of providing immediate emergency instruction via voice or signal;
  • A device, such as a telephone, or a hand-held two-way radio, capable of summoning emergency assistance from local police departments, dire departments, or state and/or local emergency response teams;
  • Portable fire extinguishers, fire control equipment, spill control equipment, and decontamination equipment; and
  • Water at adequate volume and pressure to supply water hose streams, or foam producing equipment, or automatic sprinklers, or water spray systems.
• Test and maintain the equipment to ensure proper operation.
• Develop a contingency plan. Share the contingency plan along with a summary of the plan with local emergency responders.
• Maintain copies of the contingency plan in the facility.
• Assign an emergency coordinator capable of putting the contingency plan into action.
• Post next to the telephone:
  • The name and telephone number of the emergency coordinator;
  • The location of fire extinguisher and spill control materials, fire alarms, etc; and
  • The telephone number of the local fire department.
• Keep all required reports, records, and documents for at least three years, including:
  • Waste characterization reports,
  • Manifests,
  • Land disposal restriction paperwork, and
  • Personnel training records.
• Fill out and submit biennial reports every two years for LQGs (SQGs re-notify the state of their waste activities every four years).
• Check to see if your state requires annual reporting. Annual reporting also applies to certain exports and imports of hazardous waste.