When Does a Chemical Become Hazardous Waste?

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) tasks the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with regulating hazardous wastes from their “point of generation” through their disposal, that is, from “cradle to grave.”

Particularly important for compliance with the RCRA regulations is knowing when the “cradle” starts. To understand when a chemical or other material becomes a hazardous waste, you need to know:

• What is “point of generation?”
• What is a solid waste?
• When is a solid waste a hazardous waste?

What is “point of generation?”

“Point of generation” is the moment a waste is generated—the moment you decide a material is destined to be discarded.

It is considered best practice to establish company procedures for determining point of generation for each process that generates hazardous waste streams and for determining when unused chemicals become hazardous waste.

For process wastes, the moment manufacturing materials are removed from the process with intent to dispose of them, they become a solid waste. Or, if a process is shut down for more than 90 days, the materials are considered to have been “abandoned in place” and are now solid wastes.

For commercial chemical products sitting on a warehouse shelf, point of generation is clearer: the moment a generator decides that an unused chemical is destined to be disposed of.

Now that the point of generation has been established, the generator must perform waste identification and determine if the material is a hazardous waste.

What is a solid waste?

For something to be a hazardous waste, it must first be a solid waste. The Federal hazardous waste regulations (40 CFR 261.2) define “solid waste” to include any solid, semi-solid, liquid, or contained gaseous material that is intended to be discarded.

So regardless of physical state, the moment a generator decides that a material is destined to be discarded, it is a solid waste.

When is a solid waste a hazardous waste?

Generators must perform waste identification the moment a material becomes a solid waste.

According to 40 CFR 261.3, a solid waste becomes a hazardous waste when it exhibits one or more of the characteristics of hazardous waste identified by the EPA in 40 CFR 261.21-261.24 and/or meets any of the listed descriptions of hazardous waste found in 40 CFR 261.31-261.33.

Also, per 40 CFR 261.3, any mixture of a solid waste with a listed hazardous waste is considered a listed hazardous waste and all listed waste codes apply to the entire mixture, which means there is that much more listed hazardous waste to manage correctly.

Get RCRA Training—When You Want, Where You Want

US EPA requires hazardous waste professionals to complete annual training on the RCRA requirements. Lion makes it easy to meet your RCRA training mandate in a variety of formats—nationwide public workshops, convenient online courses, live webinars, and on-site training.

Browse RCRA training options here to find the course that fits your needs, your schedule, and your learning style.

Tags: hazardous waste, point of generation, solid waste