EHS 405 Waste Management

Project - Group Work

Hazardous Wastes

:Submitted by

Student ID

Mohammed Mahdi 1063390

Mohammed Hamid 1059966

Date: 20 April 2020

Instructor: Afaf Kamal Hassan

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List of illustrations

Figure 1 6

Figure 2 7

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Hazardous Wastes

The environmental protection agency (EPA) had sorted out the hazardous wasted in

three categories LQG, SQG, and CESQG. The corporations that produce more than one

thousand kilograms of hazardous waste, or if it generates more than one kilogram of intensive

hazardous waste, it will be considered as “Large Quantity Generators” or LQG. However, if

the corporates generate more than one hundred kilograms of hazardous waste yet less than

one thousand kilograms and more than one kilogram of intensive hazardous waste, it will be

considered as “Small Quantity Generators” or SQG. Furthermore, a new ranking method

from EPA regarding very small quantity generators considered to be when the corporates

produce less than one hundred kilograms of hazardous waste and fewer than one kilogram of

intensive hazardous waste it’s called “Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators” or

CESQG. (William C. Blackman, Jr., 2001).

Hazardous waste comes from our daily utilities and from various sources. The first

example is used a lot in people’s lives; cleaning products such as dry-cleaning and laundry

plants, wood cleaning and wax remover. Also, the overloads and expired products are

considered to be wastes. The second source is construction. Construction sites have a huge

impact on the environment because of its profuse existence. Construction could cause a

hazardous waste from various examples. For instance, paint and paint tools, demolition sites,

vehicles and machines, and building and maintenance equipment. Furthermore, machines and

vehicles could produce hazardous waste from oil change and painting. The third example of

the sources of hazardous waste is laboratories and hospitals. Chemicals waste is very

dangerous on both the environment and humans. Laboratories produce a lot of chemicals

waste via the failed prototypes and students experiments. Every city in the world have

numerous numbers of schools and hospitals and the amount of the waste they produce is

extremely high. Another source of the hazardous waste is human bodies; for example, hair

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dying product and cutoff hair/nails, tanning products, and hair removal products. There are a

lot of other sources for hazardous wastes, but in our opinion, these are the most widespread

and the most used in our lives. (Managing Your Hazardous Waste, 2001)

The impact of the hazardous waste on the environment is huge and very dangerous.

The effects can harm the air we breathe, the soil we cultivate, the water we drink and the

wildlife health. According to a website blog “EPA recorded 23 million cases of voluntary

disclosure of pollution risks and opened 387 environmental criminal cases in 2009”

(Espinoza, 2018). However, the effect on the environment could be classified in two types,

short-term and long-term affect. The short-term influence effects the waterways, when the

chemicals are poured into the rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans makes it unsafe to drink or to

use for cultivation. Eventually animals and plants will die after processing this water and as

well the humans who drinks it. Although short-term effects are very harmful for the

wellbeing of humans, animals and plants, the long-term effects are even worse. The long-

term impact implicate mutated animals and it may cause cancer for humans and different

illnesses. All in all, hazardous waste has a major impact on both humans’ bodies and on the

wildlife (Espinoza, 2018).

Handling any type of waste is very dangerous to manage due to its impact on humans

and environment. To handle hazardous waste there are certain measures to take under

consideration.

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Table 1: The U.S EPA provides criteria for characterizing hazardous waste (Delmar

Morrison. Michael C. Stern, P.E., Carmen H. Osorio-Amado, 2018)

The table above shows the criteria that waste should be categorized accordingly. However,

while its very important to characterize the waste, it is quite difficult. The chemical properties

of the waste might go through various stages before reaching it final shape due to the

reactions and the changes of components. To handle wastes hazards properly, generators

must identify the type of the waste before sending it to Treatment, Storage, and Disposal

Facilities (TSDF). Nevertheless, TSDF will always analyze the waste before accepting it, and

it will do all the work according to EPA and the congress orders. In doing so, the staff

working on both ends must be fully trained and fully aware of what they are doing. Any small

mistake or any mix between the types could cause a flammable materials or even more toxic

waste. Also, the working staff should be trained to know how to handle a situation where

anything may go wrong just in case if some mistakes were made (Delmar Morrison. Michael

C. Stern, P.E., Carmen H. Osorio-Amado, 2018).

“The ultimate fate of hazardous materials is often destruction by incineration”

(Delmar Morrison. Michael C. Stern, P.E., Carmen H. Osorio-Amado, 2018). However,

before the extermination stage comes the storing phase. Storing hazardous waste is very

critical stage; facilities must be extremely careful and needs to follow the federal, provincial

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and municipal code. To safely store waste hazards, generators must classify the waste criteria

and the substance name, and they must provide the dates of production as well. Also,

generators need to use certain type of containers for each waste and the containers must be

sealable, so the waste won’t leak any gasses or liquid. Furthermore, to handle the waste

better, generators need to employ trained staff and make sure to limit the amount of waste on

the site of work for safety purposes (Darcel, 2015).

After storing the waste hazards, the waste must be separated. Separation is essential.

Some of the hazardous waste might be flammable if it put with other materials and others

might be explodable.

Figure 2: Explosion of Transporting, Storing, Disposal Facilities (TSDF)

The picture above is a transporting, storing and disposal facility explosion due to toxic

materials reactions and not separating waste properly. In these types of situations, the people

living nearby will have to evacuate immediately (Delmar Morrison. Michael C. Stern, P.E.,

Carmen H. Osorio-Amado, 2018). Separation can be processed in three methods. First, waste

can be treated physically by letting gravity pull and separate the liquids from the solids.

Secondly, the chemical method by changing the component of the waste into low hazardous

components using different processes such as pH neutralization, oxidation or reduction and

precipitation. Finally, waste can be treated with thermal extermination by burning the waste

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into ashes without the presents of oxygen and extract the toxic gasses (How can Hazardous

waste be treated by chemical, thermal, biological and physical methods?, 2012).

Treatment technologies means the methods used to convert the hazardous substances

into non-hazardous substances using technological methods rather than old-school methods.

Some of these techniques consist on having high temperatures to dissolve the waste and

finally dispose it. However, this method isn’t new and need no technology, but in the past

when people burnt the waste the emission used to go to the sky and ruin the ozone layer, so

experts found a way to lower the emission using modern technologies. Another method is

using high-energy radiation to treat the hazardous waste properly and to not affect the

environment. According to a document comparing old methods with high-energy radiation,

“This heightened awareness of potential health hazards from insufficient or inappropriate

waste handling methods has stimulated the search for effective waste treatment alternatives”

(J.F. Swinwood, T.D. Waite, P. Kruger, and S.M. Rao, 1994). Also, another method using

modern technology is the usage of electron bombardment (Morris K. Udall, Ted Stevens,

1983).

Hazardous waste can be transported on the roads with trucks, railways by trains, in the

sky with airplanes or through the water using ships. Usually, hazardous waste generators call

upon transference facilities to hold or transport the hazardous waste that been produced on

the sites of work, laboratories or manufactures buildings. If the transporter accepted to

transfer the waste, they could hold on the waste for at most ten days without storing license.

“If a transporter stores waste in containers at a transfer facility for more than 10 days, the

transfer facility becomes a storage facility” (Hazardous Waste Transportation, n.d.). To

transport hazardous waste to outside the country, there are some regulations from EPA and

other governmental agencies that need to be followed. First, the shipment needs to be signed,

dated and mentions the type of the waste on each container. Second, keep at least one copy

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with the transporter for insurance purposes. Finally, give the waste generator a copy of the

signed shipment paper (Hazardous Waste Transportation, n.d.).

After handling, storing and transporting the waste, the waste must be destructed.

There are several methods to dispose the hazardous waste, and these methods are evolving

with time. In the past, all types of wastes used to be buried in an empty land, but then people

started to notice the side effects of that process. Rivers, lakes and oceans are polluted

therefore the plants started to wither, animals became mutated, new diseases started to occur

and remarkable increase in cancer patients all because of the waste buried underground. To

prevent these side effects of happenings scientists started to figure out new methods to

dispose the hazardous waste; methods have less impact on the humans and wildlife

(Hazardous Waste Disposal, 2015). There are a lot of new methods are now used to dispose

the hazardous waste. For example, high temperature is very effective to get rid of toxic

wastes. However, burning waste could produce a toxic gas that will harm the environment as

well, but modern technology has improved a better ways and more efficient ways to burn the

waste with the absence of oxygen to lower the emission in the air. Another smart method is to

recycle it; recycling is the safest way to a final disposal of hazardous wastes for the

environment due to its efficiency, profits, and not having any side effects on the environment

(wpadmin, 2015).

All in all, this kind of waste is very harmful for the environment, humans and animals,

the environment protection agency EPA and the U.S congress have listed series of regulations

for generators and waste managers to follow. Nevertheless, people should be aware of the

effects of the hazardous waste. We recommend to the people to be careful when throwing out

trash. Batteries considered to be hazardous waste because of the chemicals inside them.

Therefore, when people are throwing out trash, they need to recycle the batteries (alongside

plastic to keep the environment clean). Furthermore, if any member of the family is taking

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medicine using needles, they should not throw it in the trash or flush them down the drain;

the same applies on leftover drugs or expired drugs. All of these wastes’ hazards must be

properly disposed of. Also, for more information contact the local government to know the

proper ways the deal with these hazardous wastes and learn the places where you can send

your hazardous waste in your regional area.

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References

Darcel, C. (2015, february 20). 8 Tips for Safe Storage of Hazardous Waste Materials. Retrieved from
maratek: https://www.maratek.com/blog/8-tips-for-safe-storage-of-hazardous-waste-materials

Delmar Morrison. Michael C. Stern, P.E., Carmen H. Osorio-Amado. (2018, April). Handle
Hazardous Waste Safely. Retrieved from aiche:
https://www.aiche.org/resources/publications/cep/2018/april/handle-hazardous-waste-safely

Espinoza, R. (2018, June 15). How Hazardous Waste Disposal Affects The Environment. Retrieved
from idrenvironmental: https://blog.idrenvironmental.com/how-hazardous-waste-disposal-
affects-the-environment

Hazardous Waste Disposal. (2015, August 7). Retrieved from Environmental Works:
https://www.environmentalworks.com/hazardous-waste-disposal/

Hazardous Waste Transportation. (n.d.). Retrieved from EPA: https://www.epa.gov/hw/hazardous-

How can Hazardous waste be treated by chemical, thermal, biological and physical methods? (2012,
may 6). Retrieved from oilseparationsolutions: http://www.oilseparationsolutions.co.za/how-
can-hazardous-waste-be-treated-by-chemical-thermal-biological-and-physical-methods/

J.F. Swinwood, T.D. Waite, P. Kruger, and S.M. Rao. (1994, January). publications magazines
bulletin bull. IAEA BULLETIN. Retrieved from IAEA:
https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/publications/magazines/bulletin/bull36-
1/36102681115.pdf

Managing Your Hazardous Waste. (2001). Washington, DC: United States Environmental Protection
Agency (5305W) Washington, DC 20460.

Morris K. Udall, Ted Stevens. (1983). Technologies and Managment strategies for Hazardous Waste
Control. Washington D.C.: Gongress of the United States.

William C. Blackman, Jr. (2001). Basic Hazardous Waste Management. New York: Lewis
Publishers .

wpadmin. (2015, September 9). 5 Methods to Dispose of Hazardous Waste. Retrieved from
incineration recycling: http://incinerationrecycling.com/5-methods-to-dispose-of-hazardous-

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waste/

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