What is a hazardous waste?
What is considered "hazardous" waste? The following section will describe the five main categories of hazards that our laws consider.
Flammable
Corrosive
Toxic
Reactive
Persistent in the environment (in special cases)
By the way
Radioactive and biohazardous wastes are not covered in this "hazardous waste" class. They are both regulated separately because they require special knowledge and training. You must take separate classroom-based courses if you use either radioactive or biohazardous material, and waste disposal is discussed in those classes. For more information, see our website.
Hazardous waste
What is the "hazardous" in hazardous waste? Materials that are
- Flammable
- Corrosive
- Toxic
- Reactive
What is the "waste" in hazardous waste?
- Used or spent chemicals from a process or experiment
- Old or unwanted chemicals - Ask yourself:
- Would I use this chemical in a critical experiment?
- Woul I use this material for a critical maintenance activity?
- Materials from a spill cleanup
- Material has exceeded printed expiration date
- Material becomes unstalbe on storage and is past useful date (e.g. diethyl ether)
Exclusions
Radioactive and biohazardous wastes are not covered in this "hazardous waste" presentation. Users must take separate classroom-based courses if using either radioactive or biohazardous material, and waste disposal is discussed in those classes.
For more information, see the training section of this website.
A material can be both hazardous and radioactive (or biohazardous) so pay attention to all characteristics.