Environmental risk of waste and its management - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 142

components, and the physico-chemical, biological, eco- and human toxicological char-
acteristics of the components. All these parameters in endless/various combinations
determine the risk of wastes.
In the European waste legislation, waste classes are based on the origin of waste
(source and the branch generating the waste: municipal, industrial, construction,
agricultural, fishery waste, etc.) and on the process generating the waste. The prop-
erties of the waste, i.e. the content of hazardous (flammable, toxic, carcinogenic) or
nonhazardous chemical substances are only the third point in the EWC.
Important information such as biodegradability, ignitability of the waste influ-
encing waste disposal, recycling or reuse are not included in the EWC. These pieces
of information are managed independently from waste classification. The values and
possible utilizations are not included either.
Wastes are classified in the EU as hazardous if the known chemical substances in the
waste are hazardous and are present in a certain concentration, e.g., a very toxic chem-
ical substance above 0.1% or a toxic chemical above 3%, as detailed in 2000/532/EC
(2000). The composition of very complex or mixed wastes (e.g., communal waste), is
not taken into account by this system in spite of the fact that communal waste contains
metals, batteries, and various household chemicals, which, in turn, contain hazardous
compounds.
The EWC and the HWL were amended in 2001 by Decision 2001/118/EC and
Decision 2001/119/EC, creating a new waste list that was introduced on 1 January
2002. Harmonization of the HWL and the wastes classification methodology and
criteria with REACH regulation is still necessary.
A complicated and incoherent legislation could result in many problems Europe-
wide, such as handling hazardous wastes as nonhazardous (red mud) or the opposite;
wastes originating from a classified technology and having no hazardous component
content cannot be classified as nonhazardous. HWL defines 14 hazard categories:

- H1 Explosive; - H11 Mutagenic;

- H2 Oxidizing; - H12 Substances/preparations which

release toxic or very toxic gases in
contact with water, air or an acid;

- H3A Highly flammable;

- H3B Flammable;

- H4 Irritant; - H13 Substances and preparations

capable by any means, after disposal,
of yielding another substance, e.g.,
leachate, which possesses any of the
characteristics listed above;

- H5 Harmful;

- H6 Toxic;

- H7 Carcinogenic;

- H8 Corrosive;

- H9 Infectious; - H14 Ecotoxic.

- H10 Toxic for reproduction;

In the US, hazardous waste is a waste with properties that make it dangerous or
potentially harmful to human health or the environment. These may be listed wastes
or characteristic wastes. Listed wastes appear on one of the four HWLs established
by EPA regulation 40 CFR Part 261 (2013 CFR, Electronic Code of Federal Regula-
tions). The management of hazardous wastes (identification, classification, generation,
management, and disposal) is regulated by 40 CFR Part 260 (2013).