Hazardous waste: characteristic

A sohd waste is considered hazardous if it is either a Hsted waste or a characteristic waste. Listed wastes include a Hst of specific processes that generate a waste and a Hst of discarded commercial chemical products. There are four hazardous waste characteristics ignitabiHty, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity. The last refers to the leachabiHty of a waste and the resultant toxicity in the groundwater using the analytical method referred to as toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP). A Hst of substances included under TCLP is shown in Table 1. 

In the United States, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) is the major legislation covering the disposal of solid and hazardous wastes (2). This act provides a multifaceted approach to solving the problems associated with the generation of approximately 5 billion metric tons of solid waste each year in the United States. It places particular emphasis on the regulation of hazardous wastes. This law established the Office of Solid Waste within the Environmental Protection Agency and directed the agency to publish hazardous waste characteristics and criteria. 

Residues from the combustion of hazardous waste are also potentially subject to RCRA regulation. If a combustion unit bums a listed hazardous waste, the ash could also be considered a listed waste via the derived-from rule. The owner and operator must also determine whether this ash exhibits any hazardous waste characteristics. The same is true if a unit bums waste that only exhibits a characteristic. Ash that exhibits a characteristic must be managed as a hazardous waste. 

Mineral processing spent materials. Mineral processing generates spent materials that may exhibit hazardous waste characteristics. Common industry practice is to recycle these mineral processing wastes back into the processing operations to recover mineral value. U.S. EPA created a conditional exclusion from the definition of solid waste for these spent materials when recycled in the mineral processing industry, provided the materials are stored in certain types of units and are not accumulated speculatively. 

A hazardous waste characteristic is a property that indicates that a waste poses a sufficient threat to deserve regulation as hazardous. U.S. EPA tried to identify characteristics that, when present in a waste, can cause death or illness in humans or ecological damage. U.S. EPA also decided that the presence of any characteristic of hazardous waste should be detectable by using a standardized test... 

The mixture and derived-from rules apply differently to listed and characteristic wastes. A mixture involving characteristic wastes is hazardous only if the mixture itself exhibits a characteristic. Similarly, treatment residues and materials derived from characteristic wastes are hazardous only if they themselves exhibit a characteristic. Unlike listed hazardous wastes, characteristic wastes are hazardous because they possess one of four unique and measurable properties. U.S. EPA decided that once a characteristic waste no longer exhibits one of these four dangerous properties, it no longer deserves regulation as hazardous. Thus, a characteristic waste can be made nonhazardous by treating it to remove its hazardous property however, U.S. EPA places certain restrictions on the manner in which a waste can be treated. One can learn more about these restrictions in the U.S. EPA Land Disposal Restrictions Module Handlers who render characteristic wastes nonhazardous must consider these restrictions when treating wastes to remove their hazardous properties. 

There are eight exemptions from the mixture rule. The first exemption from the mixture rule applies to mixtures of characteristic wastes and specific mining wastes excluded under RCRA. This narrow exemption allows certain mixtures to qualify as nonhazardous wastes, even if the mixtures exhibit one or more hazardous waste characteristics. The mining waste exclusion is explained in more detail in a U.S. EPA module.9... 

The hazardous waste listings, the hazardous waste characteristics, and the mixture and derived-from rules are all essential parts of the definition of hazardous waste, but these key elements are all described in different sections of the RCRA regulations. Only one regulatory section unites all four elements to establish the formal definition of hazardous waste. This section is entitled Definition of Hazardous Waste, which states that all solid wastes exhibiting one of the four hazardous characteristics are hazardous wastes. This section also states that all solid wastes listed on one of the four hazardous waste lists are hazardous wastes. Finally, this section explains in detail the mixture and derived-from rules and the regulatory exemptions from these rules. Thus, although the section is entitled Definition of Hazardous Waste, it serves primarily as a guide to the mixture and derived-from rules. 

There are two types of regulated hazardous waste characteristic wastes and listed wastes. A solid waste is classified as a characteristic hazardous waste if it exhibits any of the following ignitability, corrosivity, toxicity, or reactivity. A solid waste is a listed hazardous waste if it is specifically listed by the EPA or a state regulatory body based on certain criteria (40 CFR 261.11). 

SDS at all sites in this study is characterized and managed according to the hazardous waste limits for chemical agents (mustard, GB, VX), as well as other hazardous waste characteristics. The SDS is containerized and stored in a permitted storage area prior to treatment and disposal. 

Wastes from a commercial-scale nanotechnology facility would be treated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), provided that they meet the criteria for RCRA waste. RCRA requirements could be triggered by a listed manufacturing process or the act s specified hazardous waste characteristics. The type and extent of regulation would depend on how much hazardous waste is generated and whether the wastes generated are treated, stored, or disposed of on-site. 

Identification and listing of hazardous waste —characteristics of toxicity TTLC (wet-weight mg/kg) 1.0 (as a percent) BNA 2001... 

Non-empty pesticide containers which held a listed pesticide or held a pesticide exhibiting a hazardous waste characteristic. 

EPA. 1980d. Idenetification and listing of hazardous waste Characteristic of EP toxicity, US. Enviommental Protection Agency. Federal Register 45 33122. 

A closer examination of hazardous waste characteristics of battery materials does reveal differences between battery chemistries. The toxicity of conventional battery materials such as lead, antimony and cadmium are well known, and therefore they are usually recovered as much as possible rather than disposing of them. Strict emission controls are required to prevent their release into the air or water. The problems with advanced battery systems in this regard are not quite so severe, but there still may be reactive, corrosive, or toxic materials present that must be dealt with during the recycling process. 

Finding 4-7b. While neutralents may exhibit hazardous waste characteristics, they contain such small amounts of agent that they could be considered as no longer associated with the parent agent waste. If the hazardous waste listing is reversed, off-site commercial TSDFs would be able to more easily accept the waste for treatment. 

The second mechanism by which wastes may be designated hazardous waste is by the federal RCRA hazardous waste characteristics. These characteristics include ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity (40 CFR 261.21-261.24), as foUows ... 

Unlike listed hazardous waste, wastes that exhibit one or more of the RCRA characteristics are not subject to the RCRA mixture or derived-from rules. In addition, a waste may be a listed hazardous waste and also exhibit one or more hazardous waste characteristics. 

Table C-1 also compares the concentration of the nonstockpile chemical constituents in neutralent and rinsate with federal LDR treatment standards. There are no applicable federal LDRs for constituents of state-listed agent waste. But if the neutralent exhibits a RCRA hazardous waste characteristic, the federal LDRs apply. If the neutralent is not hazardous waste, the Army would have broad discretion to determine what constitutes acceptable treatment.

Hazardous-Waste Management. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 provides the framework for regulating hazardous-waste handling and disposal in the United States. One very useful component of RCRA is that it specihes a very clear and organized procedure for determining if a particular material is a hazardous waste and therefore subject to RCRA regulations. If the material of interest is indeed a waste, then it is dehned to be a hazardous waste if it appears on one of RCRA s lists of hazardous wastes, if it contains one or more hazardous chemicals that appear on an RCRA list, or if it has one or more of the four RCRA hazardous waste characteristics as dehned by laboratory tests. The four RCRA hazardous waste characteristics are hammability, reactivity, corrosivity, and toxicity. The RCRA regulations set standards for secure landhlls and treatment processes for disposal of hazardous waste. 

A waste is a solid or liquid material that is no longer used. The EPA defines waste as hazardous if it has certain properties that could pose dangers to human health and the environment after it is discarded. The EPA considers a waste to be hazardous if it possesses certain characteristics (e.g., ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity) or if it is on a list of specific wastes determined by the EPA to be hazardous. RCRA regulations, found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 40, Part 261, present the listed hazardous wastes, describe hazardous waste characteristics, and specify test methods for determining whether waste is hazardous. Complete lists of wastes identified by the EPA as hazardous can also be obtained from the EPA s RCRA/Super-fund Hotline at (800) 424-9346 or from the EPA regional offices. 

If a mixtiire of an exempt waste with a non-exempt characteristic hazardous waste exhibits any of the same hazardous waste characteristics as the hazardous waste, or if it exhibits a characteristic that would not have been exhibited by the exempt waste alone, the mixture becomes a nonexempt hazardous waste regardless of the relative volumes or concentrations of the wastes. In other words, for any of these scenarios, the wastes could become non-exempt even if only one barrel of hazardous waste were mixed with 10,000 barrels of exempt waste. 

If a different hazardous waste emerges from the treatment, storage, or even proper disposal of the original hazardous waste, this is called a derived-from waste. If the resulting sludge, ash, filter, etc. exhibits a hazardous waste characteristic, then it must be managed as a hazardous waste. 

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