Whatever service or product your organization intends to produce — whether you run a printing company, a midsize painting operation, or are a sizable consumer commodity manufacturing firm — you may also create something you might not have intended: poisonous waste. In fact, companies built on renewable recycling techniques like Resource Recovery can go beyond turn and disposal hazardous wastes into renewable energy resources. Other examples include finding regulatory exclusions/exemptions which have excluded materials as hazardous waste or finding secondary markets that may use your material as a raw material or product in another process. All these are examples of cost-effective sustainable programs that lower your bottom line and could constitute either recycling or reuse. But neglecting to understand exactly what constitutes hazardous waste at your company ultimately generates organizational inefficiencies and costly mistakes that may harm your company as well as employees and the environment. Today, businesses that produce waste — believed “generators” — have a responsibility to comprehend and practice appropriate hazardous waste management, or threat facing penalties and fines that will lead to more frequent inspections, and of course placing their workers’ health at risk.

 Identification Process: What is hazardous waste?

To assist generators to prevent errors, the EPA provides a four-step process for identifying toxic waste. Identifying hazardous waste ought to be handled by an expert who is very familiar with state and federal regulations.

  • Ascertain whether the material is a solid waste. In order to be classified as hazardous waste, a substance must be considered solid waste. Here, the terms can get somewhat confusing, because a “solid waste” as defined by the EPA isn’t necessarily physically strong. Many solid wastes might be liquid, sludge, or gasoline. A “solid waste” is classified by the EPA as being either discarded by being left-handed, is military munitions, is essentially waste-like, or is recycled in certain ways. The EPA excludes some strong wastes — like particular types of solvent contaminated wipes or gas such as — due to coverage’s, for economic reasons, or simply a lack of research regarding the waste’s effects.
  • Classify wastes as a “listed waste” or “characteristic waste”. You will find over 500″ listed wastes” that are known to cause harm to individuals and the environment, a few of which are labeled “acutely hazardous wastes” since they are known to be lethal to humans. “Blame wastes” are considered hazardous if they’re ignitable, corrosive, reactive, or toxic.
  • If the waste is a “listed waste,” the generator may decide to petition to delist. The EPA or some other regulatory agency reviews petitions to ascertain whether or not the substance should remain listed as toxic waste.
  • Though this four-step plan may seem simple, the process of identifying toxic waste (not to mention removing it from your center) is often, as the EPA says, “complex.” In fact, it could be downright complex. Determining whether or not your business is a generator of hazardous waste requires expertise in identifying toxic materials your company is purchasing or what is being manufactured; interpreting safety data sheets (SDSs); safe handling techniques; and more. In case your company doesn’t have the expertise in hazardous waste identification or disposal, then you could be taking unnecessary regulatory risks with your company’s compliance, security, efficiency.