What do you know about hazardous waste?: Hazardous Means...

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Hazardous Means...

"Waste that is dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment" is considered to be hazardous waste.

This can be known if the waste is:

Ignitable (it can catch fire)
Corrosive (it can eat through metal)
Reactive (it can explode)
Toxic (it is harmful or fatal to living things or rather, contains one or more of 39 carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic compounds at levels exceeding current limits such as pesticides.)

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/toxic-waste-overview/

The EPA has a list of more than 500 toxic wastes and they are categorized into four waste lists. The F-list is all non-specific source wastes and the K-list is source-specific. However both the P-list and the U-list include discarded commercial chemical products.

http://mtlfd.org/emergency-services/haz-mat/

We have chemicals in everything. We have them in our shampoos, cleaners, paint thinner, batteries, bug spray, etc. If we discard them they become hazardous waste. So not only do wastes come as by-products from manufacturing industries, but they area also in our own homes. According to MedlinePlus residents of the United States make up to 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste every year. Over 80,000 different chemicals are used in industries across the globe and 1,500 new chemicals are invented every year. It is expensive to get rid of them in such a way as to not endanger human life or the environment. Many companies try to avoid having to pay to much and result in throwing it in a land fill or using the cheapest method which can result in a different type of pollution (for example, air pollution from sulfur entering the atmosphere was solved with "scrubbers", but then the solid waste was dumped into the nearby water sources).

Hazardous waste effects on humans and the environment can be immediate or long-term.What are some examples?

http://www.co.grays-harbor.wa.us/info/pub_svcs/recycle/HouseHazCollection.htm

water-borne disease
respiratory problems
E coli
bacteria
mercury build up
cancer
heart disease

Sadly, governments don't usually intervene until someone or many become deathly sick or die and it is left to the people to defend themselves, which costs a lot of money and pain. Such as the example shown in the movies "A Civil Action", "Black Diamonds", and "Erin Brockovich".

To help Recycle City businesses make the best environmental decisions, Harlin keeps a list of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recommended ways to prevent pollution from hazardous waste in an interactive website HERE:

Reduce—Find safer substitutes for hazardous materials, such as using solvents made from naturally acidic ingredients like lemon juice or vinegar instead of hazardous ones.
Recycle—Clean and reuse materials than contain hazardous ingredients, such as motor oil.
Treat—Combine hazardous waste with other chemicals that make the hazardous ingredient safer. (Some hazardous waste can be safely destroyed by burning them at very high temperatures.)
Dispose—Dispose of hazardous waste in approved hazardous waste landfills after treatment. (Liquid hazardous wastes can be combined with other substances, like glass or concrete, to make them solid, so they won't move or leak when buried in a landfill.)

Test Your Knowledge About Hazardous Waste in Your Home HERE.