What is a Listed Hazardous Waste?

If you operate a place of business that deals with potentially hazardous wastes, it’s important to familiarize yourself and the workplace with the types of wastes that actually exist. If wastes are disposed of improperly then the health of you, your employees and the environment can be seriously affected. Along with the potential harm to human and environmental health, lawsuits associated with improper disposal can be significant. 

To avoid getting caught in a lawsuit like CarMax and the $1.6 million they had to pay in a settlement, read this post and learn about one of the more common types of hazardous waste:

The listed wastes. 

Defining a Hazardous Waste in Virginia

We already wrote a blog for your reading pleasure about the many different types of hazardous waste, so this should be a quick review.  

There are three primary types of hazardous waste. 

  • Characteristic 
  • Mixed radiological
  • Listed

Characteristic wastes are identified as such, so long as they exhibit ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity, as noted by the EPA. 

Mixed radiological wastes are any hazardous wastes that also contain radioactive materials and elements. 

Listed Wastes

Listed wastes are the type that have been deemed hazardous and placed on categorized lists by the EPA. Found on one of the four of these lists, listed wastes are typically results from manufacturing and industrial processes. 

The four main lists to identify hazardous wastes are:

  • F-list
  • K-list
  • P-list
  • U-list

F-Listed and K-listed Wastes

For both F and K-listed wastes, the EPA uses the following traits to indicate what makes them hazardous to human and environmental health:

  • Toxic Waste (T)
  • Acute Hazardous Waste (H)
  • Ignitable Waste (I)
  • Corrosive Waste (C)
  • Reactive Waste (R)
  • Toxicity Characteristic Waste (E)

F-Listed Wastes

Wastes that come from the F-list are non-specific source wastes. This means that they can either originate from manufacturing or industrial processes. 

These waste-producing processes can happen in any sector of industry which is why this list of wastes does not have a specified source. 

Depending on where it is produced and the type of operation (industrial or manufacturing), the wastes are divided into these 7 groups within the F-list. 

  1. Multisource leachate
  2. Wood preserving wastes
  3. Dioxin-bearing wastes
  4. Chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons production
  5. Electroplating and other metal finishing wastes
  6. Spent solvent wastes
  7. Petroleum refinery wastewater treatment sludges

K-listed Wastes

Unlike F-listed wastes, wastes that are K-listed have specific sources. These sources are within both the manufacturing and industrial areas. For these wastes, there are 13 specified industries that create them. 

The wastes come from the following processes:

  1. Petroleum refining
  2. Inorganic chemicals manufacturing
  3. Primary aluminum production
  4. Ink formulation
  5. Coking
  6. Iron and steel production
  7. Veterinary pharmaceuticals manufacturing
  8. Inorganic pigment manufacturing
  9. Secondary lead processing
  10. Petroleum refining
  11. Pesticides manufacturing
  12. Organic chemicals manufacturing
  13. Wood preservation

P-Listed and U-listed Wastes

These two types of listed wastes are from discarded, unused commercial chemical products. For a waste to be on either of these two lists it must be the following criteria:

  • Chemical must be from a commercial chemical product  
  • Chemical in the waste must be unused
  • The waste must have one of the chemicals in the P & U list

The main difference between the P-list wastes and U-list wastes is that the chemicals in the P-list are identified as acute hazardous while the chemicals in the U-list are identified as toxic.

Getting in Touch with a Certified Laboratory

Now that you know what a listed hazardous waste is, it’s important for you to be sure wastes are being identified and disposed of properly. 

Environmental Hazards Services, a certified lab in Richmond, VA, can provide accurate results when it comes to testing wastes. Check out our articles page for more information related to different types of wastes  and get in touch today to learn how we can help you.