There are only two tests to determine if a solid waste is a hazardous waste.

  1. Is it a listed waste?
  2. Is it a characteristic waste?

Let's talk about listed wastes first. There are only four lists. Two of the lists deal with chemicals, just as you saw in the Clean Water Act list. These chemicals are mostly useful industrial products, not wastes. So the chemical has to somehow exit the industrial process stream and become a waste. They might be contaminated, somehow off specification, or perhaps just no longer needed, but unsalable. They might also be some non-hazardous waste, that is contaminated by that chemical. These two lists are known as the U list and P list:

Here's are links to the U list and P List.

Many industrial wastes are not predominantly one chemical, but are a complex mixtures. Even if they are predominantly one chemical, the minor constituents of the mixture might present the greatest risk. These are two lists of waste sources,

Let's explore this by looking at some F Wastes and K wastes. Look at a random five wastes on each list. You'll note that the K listed wastes are very specific, often naming a specific process, "wastewater from the production of dinitrotolulene via the nitration of tolulene. " The F listed wastes are more general, "Spent cleaning solution from electroplating operations where cyanide is used in the operation." The electroplating might have been any metal or any cleaning solution.

So how much of these four lists should you memorize for the final exam. The answer is none. You will have some exercise to cruise around the lists and become familiar with them. In general, industries that produce F and K wastes know exactly which is which. Likewise, chemical suppliers of hazardous chemicals will tell you if their chemicals are U or P wastes (they'll tell you much more, on the MSDS sheet (or SDS), which we discuss next week.)

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