Hazardous waste quantities disposed

Some of the most common stabilizing agents used in hazardous waste disposal are Portland cement, lime, fly ash, and cement kiln dust. Small quantities of hazardous wastes are disposed of by incineration, energy conversion, manufacture of fuels, or other practical applications. 

Small quantity generators (100-1000 kg/month waste) have been regulated under RCRA, Subtitle C, since October 1986. Before then, approximately 830,000 tons of small-quantity generator hazardous wastes were disposed of in Subtitle D facilities every year. 

Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and LiabiHty Act (CERCLA)/RCRA regulations in effect at the end of 1986 bromine is regulated as a hazardous waste or material. Therefore, it must be disposed of in an approved hazardous waste faciHty in compliance with EPA and/or other appHcable local, state, and federal regulations and should be handled in a manner acceptable to good waste management practice. The reportable quantity is 45.4 kg for corrosivity (62). 

The generation of hazardous wastes by spillage must also be considered. The quantities of hazardous wastes that are involved in spiUage usually are not known. After a spUl, the wastes requiring collection and disposal are often significantly greater than the amount of spiUed wastes, especially when an absorbing material, such as straw, is used to soak up liquid hazardous wastes or when the soU into which a hazardous liquid waste has percolated must be excavated. Both the straw and hquid and the soU and the liqmd are classified as hazardous wastes. 

At the Taylor Road landfill (originally intended for the disposal of municipal refuse only), unknown quantities of hazardous wastes from industrial and residential sources were deposited. During the period when the landfill was active, soil and groundwater samples collected at the site were found to contain concentrations of volatile organic compounds and metals above acceptable safe drinking water standards. Analysis of samples collected from private drinking water wells indicated that contamination... 

Most nonexempt nonacute hazardous waste generated on location is considered a small quantity. In this case, the waste may remain on location for 90 days. At that time, a Department of Transportation licensed motor carrier must transfer the waste to a EPA certified TSDF for disposal. Appropriate documentation and packaging must be conformed to. The operator continues to be liable for the waste as denoted by the cradle to grave concept [233],... 

Chemical compatibility tests using U.S. EPA Method 909040 should always be performed for hazardous waste sites, but some municipal waste sites also contain hazardous, nondegradable materials. U.S. EPA conducted a 5-year study of the impact of municipal refuse on commercially available liner materials and found no evidence of deterioration within that period. However, in a current study of leachate quality in municipal landfills, the Agency has discovered some organic chemical constituents normally found in hazardous waste landfill facilities. Apparently, small quantities of household hazardous waste enter municipal sites or are disposed of as small quantity generator wastes. As a result of these findings, U.S. EPA developed a position on the need for chemical compatibility tests for thousands of municipal waste disposal sites. 

The expense of proper disposal leads to the shipment of large amounts of e-waste to China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and other developing countries. Shipment is often through middlemen, and under tariff classifications that make quantities difficult to assess. There, despite the intents of national regulations and hazardous waste laws, most e-waste is treated as general refuse, or crudely processed, perhaps by burning or acid baths, to recover only a few materials of value. Harm to the environment, workers, and area residents is inevitable, often from release of dioxins, furans, and heavy metals. 

Convention on Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and 69 ratified the ban on all kinds of hazardous waste export from wealthy OECD-countries to non-OECD countries, large amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are shipped overseas for recycling, the majority to China as reported by Brigden et al. [2] and Puckett et al. [3], lesser quantities to India and Western Africa reported by Kuper and Hojsik [4]. WEEE contains a variety of harmful substances like endocrine disruptors and persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Additionally, hazardous substances may be formed during informal recycling. This often practised informal treatment without proper equipment for metal extraction and labour safety heavily affects the environment and human health of workers and the inhabitants of whole stretches of land. 

Add coking operations. Certain refinery hazardous wastes can then be used as coker feedstock, reducing the quantity of sludge for disposal. 

Diehlorobenzidine has been identified in at least 32 of the 1,467 current or former EPA National Priorities List (NPL) hazardous wastes sites (HazDat 1998). However, the number of sites evaluated for 3,3 -diehlorobenzidine is not known. The frequeney of these sites within the United States can be seen in Figure 5-1. The manufacture and use of 3,3 -dichlorobenzidine has been strictly regulated by OSHA since 1974. All work with the compound is done in elosed systems and any residues are destroyed by chemical reaction. Such precautions, if conscientiously praetieed, make it unlikely that significant quantities of 3,3 -diehlorobenzidine have been disposed of in landfills or at NPL sites after 1974. 

Figure 2. Quantities of hazardous waste disposed in 1981 (preliminary data).

A large quantity of any hazardous solid wastes can only be properly transported or disposed of by licenced or certified environmental professionals. Small quantities of hazardous wastes, however, can be handled by a plant manager. 

Table 1 Methods for Disposal of Small Quantities of Common Hazardous Wastes... 

If the amount of hazardous waste a medical office produces in a month is less than 25 gal (95 L), this medical office qualifies as a very small quantity generator (VSQG) in Massachusetts. As a VSQG, the medical office is required to register with the State regulatory agency, label its wastes as hazardous, and ship it with a licenced hazardous waste hauler or precious metal transporter to a licenced treatment or disposal facility. 

Spent fluorescent lamps, as well as mercury vapor lamps, contain sufficient mercury to qualify as toxic hazardous wastes under Section 66699 (b) of the California Code of Regulations (CCR). At present, a generator may dispose of no more than 25 spent fluorescent light tubes and/or mercury vapor lamps at a time, regardless of size. The EPA, too, has concluded that fluorescent lamps can in sufficient quantities be considered hazardous waste under 40 CFR 261.24 (Quicksilver 1989). 

The need to design inherently safer plants has been expanded to encompass designing evironmentally acceptable plants. Environmentally acceptable plants generate minimum quantities of potentially hazardous wastes either as potential emissions to the environment or as materials requiring disposal. Wastes are recycled and reused where possible. If this is not possible, they may be treated to reduce or eliminate the hazard or destroyed through incineration. Disposal in a secure landfill is the final option. 

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