Hazardous Waste Classification Nigel Naisbitt Enviros

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Hazardous Waste ClassificationNigel Naisbitt
Enviros
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Content

• Background to Change
• European Waste Catalogue
• Hazardous Property Assessment
• Threshold Concentrations

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Background

• The Hazardous Waste Directive uses a list to
  define hazardous wastes
• The original Hazardous Waste List was
  incorporated into the 1996 definition of Special
  Waste
• The Hazardous Waste List has now been
  incorporated into a revised European Waste
  Catalogue

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Background (cont.)

• UK is going to use the European definition and
  replace the term special waste with hazardous
  waste
• Scotland have already changed the definition in
  their Special Waste Regulations
• The purpose to provide a consistent definition
  with other legislation which already use the
  European definition e.g. Landfill Regulations

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European Waste Catalogue

• Identifies hazardous entries using an asterisk
  ()
• However, there are two types of hazardous
  entries
• Absolute entries
• Mirror entries

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Absolute Entries

• Cover wastes that are considered to be hazardous
  regardless of their composition
• Therefore threshold concentrations are NOT
  required to determine if a waste is hazardous
  e.g.
• 16 01 07 Oil filters
• 16 06 02 Ni-Cd batteries

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Mirror Entries

• Wastes with the potential to be hazardous or
  non-hazardous depending on their composition
• Such wastes are covered by two entries
• A hazardous entry marked with an asterisk ()
  and
• An alternative non-hazardous entry
• Threshold concentrations are used to determine
  which entry applies to a particular waste

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Mirror Entries (cont.)

• Normally identified by the phrase containing
  dangerous substances, e.g.
• 16 03 03 Inorganic wastes containing dangerous
  substances
• 16 03 04 Inorganic wastes other than those
  mentioned in 16 03 03
• But some mirror entries contain references to
• Specific hazardous properties or
• Specific hazardous component

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Hazardous Property Assessment

• The change from special waste to hazardous
  waste has a significant impact on the assessment
  of a number of wastes because
• Emphasis has moved towards the inclusion of
  environmental hazards as well as human health
  hazards
• Mirror entries need to be assessed against all
  fourteen hazardous properties
• Therefore more wastes will be covered by the
  ecotoxic criteria

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Threshold Concentrations

• There are some changes to threshold
  concentrations
• The concentration of an individual carcinogenic
  substance must be above the threshold, previously
  the concentrations were additive.
• The lowest threshold concentration for ecotoxic
  is 0.25 or 2,500ppm.
• It is this ecotoxic threshold that has the
  greatest implications for contaminated soils.

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Threshold Concentrations - Ecotoxic

• Many heavy metals compounds (arsenic, lead,
  cadmium, nickel) are classified as ecotoxic.
• In addition
• It is the concentrations of the
  substances/compounds and not just the metal that
  needs to be used (e.g. 1,710 ppm of lead is
  equivalent to 0.25 lead sulphate)
• the assessment should consider the worst-case
  situation for the known metal species but the
  worst-case substances must be able to exist in
  soil (e.g. Cadmium sulphate is soluble and is
  therefore unlikely to be present)
• The concentrations of the substances are additive

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Key Waste Streams Affected

• Those which may not have been special
• End-of-life vehicles
• Wastes containing Cathode Ray Tubes
• Contaminated soils
• Waste containing heavy metals and their compounds

• Those now covered by absolute entries
• All oils (except edible)
• Majority of wood preservatives
• Many acids and alkalis
• All photographic chemicals

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Summary

• Hazardous waste classification is different to
  the classification of special waste
• Mirror entries need to be assessed against all
  fourteen hazardous properties
• More wastes will be covered by the ecotoxic
  criteria and this includes contaminated soils
• Many heavy metals compounds are classified as
  ecotoxic, which is likely to cause more
  contaminated soils to be classified as hazardous
  waste