Environmental Issues

Solid and hazardous waste

[Name of Instructor]

Environmental Issues

Solid and hazardous waste

Introduction

Chemical industries are the major contributors of hazardous waste products in our society. The waste product is created by the manufacturing industries are involved in using different processes through which a large number of hazardous waste is created. These wastage materials are not only an alarming sign for the environment but also a threat to the human health. Chemical industries are due to this particular reason, the most targeted industry by the Federal Regulations for environmental safety and quality maintenance.

The regulations in Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act(FIFRA), Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) defines the scope of chemical waste and its proper disposal methods.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration are responsible for enforcing federal regulations related to the hazardous waste in the chemical manufacturing industry. These major agencies along with the state and local regulatory agencies clearly define whether a chemical waste is hazardous or not. The key area of concern is the procedure of collecting chemical waste and its disposal methods.

Thesis Statement

Solid and hazardous wastes are continuously posing negative impacts on the environment and have become biggest challenge for the policy makers to deal with this problem.

Discussion

According to the Hazardous Waste Recycling Guidance Document (2008), only a few categories are subject to regulation as hazardous wastes. Materials that are abandoned which can cause toxicity in the environment or affects human health comes under the regulations. Materials that are recycled also fall under the regulations as it may be a waste to the current situation but it would still have a capacity to be re-used for any other purpose. Material that is inherently waste-like means that the generic compounds of any material that cannot be considered anything else but waste. Waste military munitions are in solid form and can rest in a hazardous situation if not disposed and handled properly.

Currently, waste production is increasing worldwide and is ahead of them recycling, disposal, and storage in special warehouses. Further accumulation of Waste is fraught with serious negative consequences for both the population and the environment. Therefore, in all developed countries, reduction, hosting, storage, and disposal, recycling solid and hazardous waste management has received increased attention. 

Wastes are divided into domestic, industrial, waste associated with mining minerals and radioactive. In the phase state, they can be solid, liquid, or a mixture of solid, liquid and gas phases. If you store all waste undergoes changes due to both internal physical chemical processes and the influence of external conditions. As a result, at the sites of storage and disposal of waste may be generated new environmental hazardous substances which penetration into the biosphere would pose a serious threat to the human environment. So, storage and disposal of hazardous wastes should be viewed as storage of physico-chemical process (http://www.epa.gov/).

Municipal solid waste (MSW) is extremely heterogeneous in composition: food waste, paper, scrap metal, ...