If you find that the material is a solid waste, the next step is to determine if the waste meets the criteria of any of the three categories of exclusion from hazardous waste regulation.
If the exclusion applies to a solid waste, the waste is not regulated under RCRA Subtitle C and the hazardous waste determination process ends.
3 CATEGORIES OF EXCLUSION
Solid Wastes Excluded from Being Hazardous Wastes
The first category of exclusion exempts certain materials from the definition of hazardous waste. For the purpose of hazardous waste determination, the following solid wastes are deemed not to be hazardous waste:
- Household waste. This exclusion does not exclude the collection, transportation, treatment, and disposal of household wastes from federal, state, and local regulation of solid wastes.
- Agricultural wastes generated by crop or animal farming (including manures) that are returned to the soils as fertilizers.
- Mining overburden returned to the mine site.
- Fly ash waste, bottom ash waste, slag waste, and flue gas emission control waste generated primarily from the combustion of coal or other fossil fuels.
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- Drilling fluid, produced waters, and other wastes associated with the exploration, development, or production of crude oil, natural gas, or geothermal energy.
- Chromium-bearing toxic hazardous wastes from certain industries.
- Solid waste from the extraction, beneficiation, and processing of ores and minerals.
- Cement kiln dust waste. To qualify for this exemption, facilities that burn or process fossil and hazardous waste fuel must keep their cement kiln dust below levels established in 40 CFR 266.112.
- Solid waste that consists of discarded arsenical-treated wood or wood products that fail the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) for EPA hazardous waste code numbers D004 through D017 and that is not a hazardous waste for any other reason. The exclusion applies only to end-users and not to manufacturers.
- Petroleum-contained media and debris that fail the TCLP for EPA hazardous waste code numbers D018 through D043 only and are subject to the corrective action regulations of 40 CFR 280.
- Used chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants from totally enclosed heat transfer equipment, including mobile air-conditioning systems, mobile refrigeration, and commercial industrial air-conditioning and refrigeration systems that use CFCs as the heat transfer fluid in a refrigeration cycle, provided the refrigerant is reclaimed for further use.
- Non-terne-plated used oil filters, provided the filters are gravity hot-drained in accordance with one of the methods in 40 CFR 261.4(b)(13).
- Used oil re-refining distillation bottoms that are used as feedstock to manufacture asphalt products.
- Leachate or gas condensate collected from landfills where certain solid wastes have been disposed (certain provisions apply).
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Raw Material, Product, and Process Unit Wastes
The second category of exclusion is for hazardous waste generated in product or raw material storage tanks, transport vehicles or vessels, pipelines, manufacturing process units, or nonwaste treatment manufacturing units, as long as the waste remains in the unit. This exemption does not apply if the unit is a surface impoundment.
The waste becomes subject to hazardous waste regulation when it is removed from the unit or if the hazardous waste remains in the unit for more than 90 days after the unit temporarily or permanently ceases operation. It is at this point that the generator accumulation standards set forth at 40 CFR 262.34 would apply to the waste.
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