Identifying Hazardous Waste
The EPA developed a regulatory definition and process that identifies specific substances known to be hazardous and provides objective criteria for including other materials in the regulated hazardous waste universe.
This identification process can be very complex, so the EPA encourages generators of wastes to approach the issue using the series of questions described in the image.
- For a material to be classified as a hazardous waste, it must first be a solid waste. Therefore, the first step in the hazardous waste identification process is determining if a material is a solid waste.
- The second step in this process examines whether the waste is specifically excluded from regulation as a solid or hazardous waste.
- Once a generator determines that their waste meets the definition of a solid waste, they investigate whether the waste is a listed or characteristically hazardous waste. There are four hazardous waste characteristics: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity,and toxicity.
- Finally, some facilities petition the EPA to delist their wastes from the RCRA Subtitle C regulation.
- You can research the facilities that successfully petitioned the EPA for a delisting in Appendix IX of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations part 261.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-3. What is the first step in the hazardous waste identification process?
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