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Please note: This summary is provided to help you understand the regulations. Consult the references provided for links to the full text of the regulations.
Hazardous Waste Determination
This page will help you determine if a given waste material must be classified as hazardous. The rules are spelled out in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and in the large body of regulations developed by the Environmental Protection Agency to implement RCRA. The importance of accurately making hazardous waste determinations cannot be overstated -- failing to correctly identify all hazardous waste is the most common violation of RCRA regulations. Plus, when determinations are not correctly made, there is an excellent chance that hazardous waste management rules are not being followed, which means additional violations and fines. Please note that the regulations in your state may be different in some respects from the federal regulations. Consult the Hazardous Waste State Resource Locator to find more information on your state's hazardous waste regulations. Outline of the six steps EPA recommends that you follow a six step process to determine whether a waste is hazardous. The steps are listed below, expressed as a series of questions:
The steps are discussed in some detail in the following sections, with an emphasis on issues that would typically arise in transportation sector maintenance and repair facilities. Because the issues can get complicated, the sections also provide links to more detailed information. The first step in determining if a material is a hazardous waste is to determine whether it is classified as a "solid waste". The rules specify that a material cannot be a hazardous waste unless it is first determined to be a solid waste. You probably think you learned what a solid is in eighth grade science class. The folks who wrote the RCRA rules must have skipped that class. This is the first of many times when the RCRA rules can be confusing. "Solid" for RCRA purposes doesn't mean what it means to you and me. The regulatory usage of the term "solid" in this context is closer to the sense of the word "contained". RCRA states: "The term "solid waste" means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material ..." (US Code, Title 42, paragraph 6903, emphasis added). So even gaseous material can, in some circumstances, qualify as a "solid waste". Most materials of concern in transportation repair/maintenance facilities will fall under the "other discarded material" category in the RCRA definition. So how can you recognize when material has been "discarded"? According to EPA usage, there are three types of "discarded" material:
Abandoned: In simplest terms, a material is considered "abandoned" if you plan to get rid of it. It clearly applies to material you have already disposed of, or that you have incinerated. It also applies to material that is being accumulated, stored and treated for eventual disposal or incineration. It's not hard to imagine situations in which a facility and an inspector might have a difference of opinion about whether some stored material is or is not a waste. Here are some of the questions the inspector might ask:
For example, suppose the inspector comes across a 55 gallon drum of solvent in the basement that is rusted, corroded and sitting in a pool of water. Even if the solvent is a valuable commodity, the facility is not 'treating' it as such. They are treating it as waste. The inspector would be likely to consider it abandoned. Recycled: Specific types of recycled materials are considered 'discarded' and are therefore solid waste. A material is normally considered to be discarded if it is:
"Speculative accumulation" refers to all those piles of material that you fully intend to recycle, but haven't quite gotten around to. EPA will generally consider that your material is being "accumulated speculatively" if you cannot demonstrate a viable market for it, or if you have not recycled at least 75% of it in a given calendar year. A material is also considered discarded if it is accumulated, stored or treated before recycling. Please note that some materials that are reclaimed are not considered solid wastes under RCRA, even if they exhibit a characteristic of hazardous waste (like ignitability or corrosivity -- see below). These include:
Similarly, commercial chemical products that are speculatively accumulated are also not solid wastes under RCRA. Inherently waste-like: Certain materials pose such a significant threat to human health that they are deemed "inherently waste-like" and are always considered solid wastes. A standard example is any material containing dioxins -- that is in fact the only example so far. In case of dispute: It can sometimes happen that an inspector will consider that a particular material has been "discarded", and the facility will not agree. In such a case, the facility will have to submit appropriate documentation to the inspector. For example, if you are claiming that the material is a valuable commodity or has another use, you will need to show that you have a market for it, or that someone is actually taking and using it beneficially, etc.The next step is to determine if the waste qualifies for an exclusion from RCRA regulation. There are four main avenues:
Solid waste exclusion: There are some materials that are specifically excluded from the definition of "solid waste". You can find a full listing in 40 CFR 261.4(a). Examples include domestic sewage, industrial wastewater regulated under the Clean Water Act, and a long list of materials from industrial and agricultural processes that have little to do with vehicle repair/maintenance. Regarding the case of domestic sewage and industrial wastewater, please be aware that this exclusion does not give you an opportunity to throw questionable waste down the drain and then claim that it's excluded under 40 CFR 261.4. The purpose of that exclusion is to allow facilities like municipal sewage treatment plants (known as "publicly owned treatment works", or POTWs) to deal with their waste streams without having to comply with RCRA requirements that would be inappropriate for them. Industrial facilities must have a written agreement from their POTW to accept any waste that might qualify. In addition, the waste must actually reach the POTW to qualify for the exclusion -- if it gets trapped in the pipes or evaporates on the way, it does not qualify. Solid waste variance: Another possible way to keep a particular material from being regulated under RCRA is to apply for a solid waste variance. This option applies to:
In order to use these variances, you will have to submit documentation demonstrating your case. If your state is authorized to administer the variance program, send the documentation to the director of your state agency. Otherwise, send it to the EPA Regional Administrator. You can find the rules governing solid waste variances in 40 CFR, sections 260.30, 260.31 and 260.33. Hazardous waste exclusion: Even if a material is indeed a solid waste, and even if it does not qualify for a solid waste variance, the regulations provide yet another possibility for exclusion. The solid waste might be excluded from being considered a "hazardous waste" if it falls under any of the exemptions listed in the next subsection of the Code, 40 CFR 261.4(b). Most of the hazardous waste exclusions listed in that subsection are not relevant to transportation facilities, but here are two possibilities that may apply to you:
The RCRA regulations include four lists of materials, designated with the letters F, K, P, and U. (The origin of the letter designations is obscure.) If the waste you are screening appears on the any of the lists, your task is done -- it's hazardous. What distinguishes the lists? The F- and K-lists cover process wastes -- materials that have been used in processes carried out in your facility. The P- and U-lists cover unused chemicals that are being discarded for various reasons; for example, they may be off-specification or expired, they may have been spilled and cleaned up, or they may be residues left in containers. The distinction between the two process waste lists (F and K) lies in their specificity. The K-list deals with very specific processes that are typically carried out by one manufacturing sector only, such as organic chemical manufacturing or petroleum refining. The F-list covers general processes that might occur in a range of sectors, such as solvent use, metal finishing processes, and wood preserving. The unused chemicals lists (P and U) differ in their degree of risk. P-listed wastes are "acutely toxic", meaning that they can cause death or irreversible illness at low doses. U-listed wastes are "toxic": they are still regarded as hazardous, but some of the more drastic regulations that apply to the P-list do not apply to U-listed wastes. The P- and U-lists do not apply to manufactured articles that contain a P- or U-listed waste (e.g. mercury thermometers) or to products that contain more than one active ingredient. Such wastes might still be hazardous, but their hazard classification would fall under a different category (most likely the toxicity characteristic discussed in the next section). K-list F-list
The rest of the F-list is not likely to apply to transportation repair/maintenance facilities unless electroplating or anodizing operations are performed. There are two F-listed wastes from these types of operations:
P-list U-list
Designating hazardous materials by listing them explicitly is fine as far as it goes, but that strategy will never go far enough. There are many more materials used in commerce than could ever be covered in a manageable set of lists. Furthermore, some mixtures of materials can be just as hazardous as single materials, while others can be relatively benign. Given the astronomical number of possible combinations of materials, listing is not a practical way to account for mixtures. To cope with these possibilities, RCRA provides another set of criteria for classifying a waste as hazardous. Whatever its composition, a waste is considered hazardous by RCRA if it exhibits any of four characteristics:
They are discussed in greater detail below. Note: Even if a waste has been determined to be a listed waste, it should also be evaluated to see if it also qualifies as a characteristic waste. Additional rules may apply to it in some cases. Ignitability A waste is considered "ignitable" under RCRA if it is:
(The "flash point" of a liquid is the temperature at which the vapor above a pool of liquid will catch fire under a standard set of conditions.) Ignitable wastes commonly found at transportation repair/maintenance facilities include:
The regulations covering the ignitability characteristic can be found in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 261, Section 21 (40 CFR 261.21). Corrosivity Examples of common corrosive wastes occurring at transportation repair/maintenance facilities include:
The regulations covering the corrosivity characteristic can be found in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 261, Section 22 (40 CFR 261.22). Note that spent batteries are a special type of hazardous waste called Universal Waste, when they are recycled following specific procedures. Go to Universal Wastes. Reactivity
Generally, reactive wastes are not generated at transportation repair/maintenance facilities. Toxicity To measure this potential, the rules specify a test called the Toxic Characteristic Leaching Procedure, or TCLP (EPA Method 1311). The test is designed to give some indication of how readily various materials would tend to leach into groundwater if the waste were placed in a landfill. One form of the test involves subjecting the waste to a mild acetic acid solution (about the strength of household vinegar) at room temperature for 18 hours. The solution is then tested for the presence of any of the so-called "D-listed" chemicals. For each of the chemicals, the RCRA rules specify a threshold level (concentration). If any of the chemicals is present in the solution at a concentration above its threshold level, the waste is considered a toxic hazardous waste. Common transportation repair/maintenance wastes that are considered by RCRA to have the toxicity characteristic include:
Note that spent fluorescent bulbs and batteries are a special type of hazardous waste called Universal Waste, when they are managed according to specific procedures. Go to Universal Wastes. If a hazardous waste (e.g., solvent) and a non-hazardous waste (e.g., used oil) are mixed, the resulting mixture may inherit the hazardous classification. The rules are different for listed and characteristic wastes.
There are various exceptions and exemptions -- see, for example, the RCRA Orientation Manual listed in the More Resources section for additional information and references. Is it derived from a hazardous waste? Similar rules apply to wastes that are derived from listed or characteristic hazardous wastes as residues from waste treatment processes. Since most transportation repair/maintenance facilities are not hazardous waste Treatment, Storage, and Disposal (TSD) sites (and thus should be sending all hazardous wastes to a licensed TSD facility), this consideration is unlikely to apply to them.
Managing Used Oil Advice for Small Businesses - This fact sheet contains valuable information for businesses such as transportation repair/maintenance shops that generate and handle used oil. It summarizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) used oil management standards - a set of "good housekeeping" requirements for used oil handlers.
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Compliance Summary Tool
