Hazardous waste generators

Scope

Hazardous waste generators must count up all the waste they generate each month to determine their generator category. In addition, they must not accumulate more waste than is allowed for their category at any one time.

Regulatory citations

• 40 CFR 261 — Identification and Listing of Hazardous Waste
• 40 CFR 262.14 — Conditions for exemption for a very small quantity generator.
• 40 CFR 262.16 — Conditions for exemption for a small quantity generator that accumulates hazardous waste.
• 40 CFR 262.17 — Conditions for exemption for a large quantity generator that accumulates hazardous waste.

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.
• 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.
• 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).
• 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 Section 261.2(c)(2) or Part 266 Subpart F.
• 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.
• 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 (aka 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.
• RCRA: The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which is the nation’s solid and hazardous waste management law.
• Small Quantity Handler of Universal Waste (SQHUW): A handler that does not accumulate 5000 kg of all universal waste categories combined at a location at any one time.
• Tanks: Stationary containers used to store or treat hazardous waste.
• Use constituting disposal: The direct placement of wastes or waste-derived products (e.g., asphalt with petroleum refining wastes as an ingredient) on the land.
• 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).

Summary of requirements

• Count the total amount of hazardous waste generated in a calendar month.
• Determine your hazardous waste generator category (i.e., VSQG, SQG, or LQG).
• Do not accumulate more waste than is allowed for your generator category at any one time.
• Ship waste offsite within 180 or 90 days, depending on your generator category.
• 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.
• Know what to do if you exceed your accumulation limits.