Environmental risk of waste and its management - Environmental Deterioration and Contamination: Problems and their Management - page 143

Listed wastes:

- The F-list (nonspecific source wastes);

- The K-list (source-specific wastes);

- The P-list and the U-list (discarded commercial chemical products).

Characteristic wastes exhibit one or more of these four characteristics:

- Ignitability;

- Corrosivity;

- Reactivity;

- Toxicity.

Hazardous wastes cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an
increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible illness; or pose a substantial
present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when it is improperly
treated, stored, transported, disposed of, or otherwise managed.
Some criteria for listing a waste as hazardous waste in RCRA are as follows:

- Significant acute toxicity;

- Toxic constituents and the concentration of the toxic constituents;

- Potential of the toxic constituent or its degradation product to migrate from the

waste into the environment;

- Persistence of the constituent or any toxic degradation product of the constituent;

- Potential to be transformed into toxin;

- Bioaccumulation potential;

- Plausible types of improper management to which the waste could be subjected;

- Nature and severity of the damage to human health and the environment that has

occurred as a result of improper management of wastes containing the constituent;

- Action taken by other governmental agencies or regulatory programs based on the

health or environmental hazard posed by the waste or waste constituent.

4 WASTE MANAGEMENT HIERARCHY

Waste management alternatives are summarized in the Waste Management Hierarchy
Pyramid (2011) in Figure 6.1. The Waste Management Hierarchy (2013) ranks the
alternatives of waste management from the most favorable option at the top to the
least favorable one at the bottom. To represent the desired quantitative ratios under
waste hierarchy grades, it would be worth reversing the pyramid as shown in Figure 6.2;
minimizing disposal and energy recovery and encouraging prevention, reuses and more
valuable recoveries than energy.
Prevention from and reduction of the production of waste leads to reduced waste
amount, more efficient material use, and less environmental burden.

- Avoidance: using less material in design and manufacture, lean production;

- Reduction: keeping products for longer, design longer product life;

- Using less hazardous materials;