Universal waste transporters

Universal waste transporters are persons who transport universal waste from handlers of universal waste to other handlers, destination facilities, or foreign destinations. These wastes do not need to be accompanied by an RCRA hazardous waste manifest during transport, but transporters must comply with applicable Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements. 

The universal waste transportation requirements are not onerous. Because they are not defined as hazardous wastes, universal wastes in the United States do not need to be accompanied by a hazardous waste manifest, or shipped by a hazardous waste transporter. Even so, transportation is where many generators lose money and where many recyclers make their margins. 

Universal waste transporter A transporter that transports universal waste from handlers to other handlers, destination facilities, or foreign destinations. 

Transporters may store universal waste for up to 10 days at a transfer facility during the course of transportation. Transfer facilities are transportation-related facilities such as loading docks, parking areas, and storage areas. If a transporter keeps universal waste for more than 10 days at one location, the transporter is subject to all applicable SQHUW or LQHUW regulations. 

For proper management and disposal of the aforementioned universal wastes, a waste generator, a waste handler, a transporter, or a destination facility must understand the legal definitions of wastes and their legal status. The following is an overview of legal definitions and related requirements. 

A key theme of this chapter is the reutilization of chemicals via available disposition routes. Any surplus chemicals still remaining at the end of the disposition cycle may re-enter it or be subject to final disposal as solid waste. Exceptions include chemicals that qualify for recycling and recovery (e.g., precious metals, ethylene glycol, anti-ffeeze solutions) or can be classified as Universal waste (see def.) under applicable environmental regulations. These pollution prevention and waste-minimization activities are covered in Chapter 7 ( Pollution Prevention and Waste Minimization ). However, requirements related to waste operations, such as the identification, storage, handling, transportation, treatment and disposal of waste fall outside the scope of the present chapter on chemical disposition. 

Universal waste management does not require use of a manifest or a licensed transporter to transport the waste to a permitted treatment, storage or disposal facility. More importantly, management as universal waste allows facilities that meet universal waste handler requirements to accumulate these wastes without having to comply with the full set of hazardous waste management regulations. 

The financial impact of compliance with the provisions of all of these regulations and laws is not trivial. For example, the costs associated with correcting almost 2,300 cited OSHA violations in 1972 and 1974 at two major research universities was 440,000 (394). The expense of contracting for the disposal of hazardous wastes with licensed waste transporters has dramatically increased the overhead costs of research. Table 18.2 lists typical OSHA de-... 

Source From AFS, Alternative Utilization of Foundry Waste Sand, final report (Phase I) for Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, American Foundrymen s Society, Des Plaines, IL, July 1991. Javed, S. and Lovell, C.W., Use of Foundry Sand in Highway Construction, Joint Highway Research Project No. C-36-50 N, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, July 1994. Javed, S., Lovell, C. W., and Wood, L.E., Waste Foundry Sand in Asphalt Concrete, in Transportation Research Record, No 1437, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 1994. 

No information was located on any on-going studies on the fate and transport of bromomethane. However, two studies related to human exposure to bromomethane are being supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and conducted at the University of California, Davis. One project will analyze bromomethane residues on foods, and the second will quantitate exposure levels of field workers to bromomethane and develop appropriate procedures to minimize exposure from this source. Remedial investigations and feasibility studies at NPL sites that contain bromomethane will provide further information on environmental concentrations and human exposure levels near waste sites. 

The release of PCDD/PCDF from transport activities was estimated to be very minimal and not reported for uncontrolled combustion processes (Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2004). In the Department of Environment Malaysia 1997 report, the major sources of air pollution in 1996 were motor vehicles, 82%, power stations, 9%, industrial fuel burning, 5%, industrial production processes, 3%, domestic and commercial furnaces, 0.2%, and open burning at solid waste disposal sites, 0.8% (Afroz et al., 2003). Leaded gasoline has been phased out since 1998 and most cars have been fitted with catalytic converters since then. Consequently, a minimal release of PCDD/PCDF is expected from motor vehicles that are mainly from diesel-powered vehicles. The released air pollutions monitored were CO, N02, S02, 03, and suspended particulate matters. 

The energy-based industrial and scientific revolution, which continues today, has given us massively magnified powers over the forces of nature. Disease has been reduced food and shelter have become more readily available transportation and communication have leaped forward. Over time, this progress has accelerated the growth of population and the consumption of food, timber, minerals, and aquatic life. Billions of people are now able to live lives of material splendor. With a flick of the switch, we can illuminate where and when we wish, heat and cool our structures, move about (physically and figuratively) with unbelievable speed and freedom, dispose of our wastes, treat our sick, and explore the universe. 

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