- 04 December 2007 -
You Can’t Forget Hazardous Wastes
By John B. Durkee, jdurkee@precisioncleaning.com

As our industry comes to focus, and possibly closure, about use of chromium in plating and like operations, it is important to remember that closure about chromium can’t ever be complete. When a waste material is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as hazardous, that classification can’t ever be rescinded.

Finishers may stop using chromium in operations, but the chromium-containing wastes they previously disposed will always be theirs to own. The liability for management of a hazardous waste is permanent! This column is about what that means, and possibly how to avoid it.

Pollution Prevention By Genie
Basically, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) should require there to be a genie sitting on your shoulder.

Every time you purchase a chemical whose use could produce a hazardous waste, the genie should speak up and say, “Do you really want to own this stuff—now and forever? Remember, this is a much more serious commitment than marriage.”

That’s real “pollution prevention!”

The RCRA Law
It can wreck you!

The RCRA is a public law, passed by the U.S. Congress on October 21, 19761. It is the key legislation affecting generators and disposers of spent chemicals.

RCRA covers hazardous wastes. These have properties that make them dangerous or potentially harmful to human health or the environment. They can be newly purchased goods whose package you have opened2; the by-products of your manufacturing processes, such as soil removed from parts; or discarded commercial products, such as cleaning fluids.

Hazardous Wastes
The classification of a waste as hazardous is usually absolute. Users are responsible for knowing the two-part classification scheme, applying it to their solid/liquid wastes, and accepting the consequences.

EPA’s two-part scheme is that:

• Some specific wastes are defined as hazardous and are so listed;
• and other wastes are hazardous if they manifest any of four characteristics.

Listed Wastes
There are three lists:

1. Source-specific wastes (the F-list). Examples include:

• “...The following spent halogenated solvents used in degreasing: Tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, methylene chloride, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, carbon tetrachloride, and chlorinated fluorocarbons; all spent solvent mixtures/blends used in degreasing containing, before use, a total of 10% or more (by volume) of one or more of the above halogenated solvents or those solvents listed in F-002, F-004, and F-005; and still bottoms from the recovery of these spent solvents and spent solvent mixtures ....” (F-001).
• “...Plating bath residues from the bottom of plating baths from electroplating operations where cyanides are used in the process...” (F-008).
• “...Spent cyanide solutions from salt bath pot cleaning from metal heat treating operations...” (F-011).
• “...Quenching bath residues from oil baths from metal heat treating operations where cyanides are used in the process...” (F-010).

2. Non-specific source wastes (the K-list). This list includes certain wastes from specific industries, such as petroleum refining or pesticide manufacturing. Examples are:

• Wastewater treatment sludge from the production of chrome green pigments (K-005).
• Oven residue from the production of chrome oxide green pigments (K-008).
• Spent potliners from primary aluminum reduction (K-088).

3. Discarded commercial chemical products (the P-list and the U-list). These are “...Commercial chemical products, manufacturing chemical intermediates or off-specification commercial chemical products or manufacturing chemical intermediates ... or ... chemical substance which is manufactured or formulated for commercial or manufacturing use which consists of the commercially pure grade of the chemical...”

The two lists apparently differ by the nature of the chemical constituents of the commercial products found upon them. Examples are:

• Hydrogen cyanide, CAS # 74-90-8, P-063;
• nickel carbonyl, CAS # 13463 39 3, P-073;
• potassium silver cyanide, CAS # 506-61-6, P-099;
• zinc cyanide, CAS # 557-21-1, P-121;
• 1,2-dichloroethylene, CAS # 156 60 5, U-079;
• acetone, CAS # 64-67-1,U-002;
• acrylic acid, CAS # 79-10-7, U-008; and
• chlorobenzene, CAS # 108-90-7, U-037.

You can see that the basis for definition of a waste as hazardous by the EPA is based on its chemical constituents. That’s why the CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) number is supplied above.

Characteristic Wastes
The second, and equally punitive, approach for classification by the EPA of a waste as hazardous does not depend upon a list of ingredients.

This approach depends solely upon what the waste is. Any of four characteristics can independently cause a waste to be characterized as being hazardous to dispose. They are:

1. Ignitability: Examples include waste oils and used solvents. Flash point is the defining characteristic. It must be above 140°F to avoid the classification of hazardous. The Setaflash or Pensky-Martens apparatus may be used. Its chemical identity or source does not matter. The red quadrant of a package label might display the number 4 or 3. The hazard is fire.
2. Corrosivity. Examples include battery acid, acids used in plating work, and caustic used in cleaning work. pH must be below 2 and (highly acidic) and above 12.5 (highly basic). An EPA Method 1110A, Corrosivity Toward Steel, may be used to identify whether or not the acidic or basic waste is suitably corrosive. A package label might display the text “ACID,” “ALK,” or “COR.” The hazard is damage to human tissue.
3. Reactivity. Examples include lithium-sulfur batteries, oxygen or some welding gases, and explosives. There are currently no test methods available. The yellow quadrant of a package label might display the text “OXY” (oxidizer) or the text “W\” (use no water), or the number 4, 3, or 2. The hazard is explosion.
4. Toxicity. Examples include wastes containing chromium, mercury, and lead, for example, though their presence does not have to be identified. Toxicity is defined through a laboratory procedure called the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure. The blue quadrant of a package label might display the number 4, 3, or 2. The hazard is harm or fatality when ingested or absorbed.

Some specific wastes have been exempted from classification as hazardous by petition as covered in 40 CFR 261.4.

Getting Out
Finishers producing a solid waste are advised to investigate if their waste has been either3: (1) specifically excluded from the hazardous classification per 40 CFR 261.4, or (2) specifically listed as a hazardous waste in subpart D of 40 CFR part 261.

Buying Out
Finishing (or other) sites are not likely to treat or dispose of hazardous waste they produce with their own supervision and on their own sites.

The reason is that finishing sites have a charter or purpose different from that of treating hazardous wastes—making money via finishing metal objects.

Treating hazardous wastes is very expensive for the waste generator, but nearly all sites contract that responsibility to an outside firm. This contract usually transfers, for a substantial fee, the “cradle-to-grave” liability from the waste generator to the disposal firm.

Paperwork
The first requirement of any participant in a military organization is to report for orders. So, too, with the EPA: “...a generator must not treat, store, dispose of, transport, or offer for transportation, hazardous waste without having received an EPA identification number from the Administrator....”, and “...a generator who transports, or offers for transport, a hazardous waste for offsite treatment, storage, or disposal, or a treatment, storage, and disposal facility that offers for transport a rejected hazardous waste load, must prepare a Manifest...”.

A finishing site contracting for off-site disposal, or storage by landfill, will need to prepare these forms as part of the liability transfer process to the contract disposal firm.

What A Waste!
Hazardous wastes result because of the choices we make—of the chemicals used in our finishing processes, and how we use them.

Since contracts to dispose hazardous wastes are priced upwards of $100 per pound of waste, minimization or prevention of their production can be a major competitive advantage4.

Electropolishing is an excellent example of a finishing technology where disposal cost is a competitive advantage because of technological innovation. Waste minimization is a major driver for cost reduction in metal finishing industries.

References

1. The RCRA regulations are contained in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Parts 239 through 299. You can read more about it at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/laws-reg.htm.
2. In general, if you haven’t opened a package containing hazardous chemicals, you can return it unopened to your supplier, who is required to accept it. Your supplier may, and probably will, protest. But one can’t force another to accept a responsibility. Generally, opening of the package is the enabling trigger in which liability for compliance with RCRA is transferred from the manufacturer to the user.
3. Both regulations can be found at the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations at http://www.gpoaccess .gov/index.html.
4. A legitimate competitive offset enjoyed by some off-shore competitors is the absence of government recognition that some wastes impose more long-term hazard than do others.

John B. Durkee is the author of the book “Management of Industrial Cleaning Technology and Processes,” published by Elsevier (ISBN 0-0804.48887). He is an independent consultant specializing in metal and critical cleaning. You can contact him at P.O. Box 847, Hunt, TX 78024 or 122 Ridge Road West, Hunt, TX 78024; (830) 238-7610; Fax (612) 677-3170; or (e-mail) jdurkee@precisioncleaning.com.