Hazardous waste in the United States

Through RCRA, Congress directed EPA to issue regulations for the management of hazardous waste.

Implementation of the authorized program usually includes activities such as permitting, corrective action, inspections, monitoring and enforcement.

[1] The primary contribution of RCRA was to create a "cradle to grave" system of record keeping for hazardous wastes.

[5] The primary contribution of CERCLA was to create a financial "Superfund" and provide for the clean-up and remediation of closed and abandoned hazardous waste sites.

[7][8] Research by the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab shows that US companies ship more than a million tons of hazardous waste to other countries each year.

[10] Ignitable wastes can create fires under certain conditions, are spontaneously combustible, or are liquids with a flash point less than 60 °C (140 °F).

They can cause explosions, toxic fumes, radioactive particles, gases, or vapors when heated, compressed, or mixed with water.

Toxic wastes are those containing concentrations of certain substances in excess of regulatory thresholds which are expected to cause injury or illness to human health or the environment.

(For more information, see Fact Sheet: Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generator) EPA has other ways of regulating hazardous waste.

HHW only applies to wastes that are the result of the use of materials that are labeled for and sold for "home use" and that are purchased by homeowners or tenants for use in a residential household.

Be sure to check with your local environmental regulatory agency, solid waste authority, or health department to find out how HHW is managed in your area.

Modern landfills are designed to handle normal amounts of HHW and minimize the environmental impacts.

While it is still legal in the United States to dispose of smoke detectors in your trash in most places, manufacturers of smoke detectors must accept returned units for disposal as mandated by the Nuclear Regulatory law 10 CFR 32.27.

States regulate HHW waste disposal in MSW landfills with various requirements, on a state-by-state basis.

"In terms of hazardous waste, a landfill is defined as a disposal facility or part of a facility where hazardous waste is placed in or on land and which is not a pile, a land treatment facility, a surface impoundment, an underground injection well, a salt dome formation, a salt bed formation, an underground mine, a cave, or a corrective action management unit (40 CFR 260.10).