CEE 455

Solid & Hazardous

Waste Management
Hazardous waste management:
Introduction, health & safety
By: Mert Guney

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 DEFINITION of
HAZARDOUS WASTE
• Hazardous wastes (HW)
• wastes (solids, liquids and containerized gases) other
than radioactive and infectious wastes
• chemically reactive
• toxic
• ignitable
• corrosive
• cause danger to health or the environment whether
alone or when coming into contact with other wastes.
• Use of “hazardous substances” leads to substances no
longer usable or recyclable ➔“hazardous wastes”

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 EU Definition
• According to the Council Directive
91/689/EEC of 12 December 1991 on
hazardous waste, Hazardous waste means:
“Wastes having one or more of the
properties listed in Annex III.”
• Categories and generic types of hazardous
wastes are given in Annex I.
• Waste constituents which make a waste
hazardous are listed in Annex II.
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 Annex III
• H1 'Explosive` • H10 'Teratogenic` (induce non-hereditary
• H2 'Oxidizing` malformations or increase their incidence)
• H3-A 'Highly flammable`• H11 'Mutagenic`
• H12 Substances & preparations which
• H3-B 'Flammable` release toxic gases in contact with water,
• H4 'Irritant` air or an acid.
• H5 'harmful` • H13 Substances & preparations capable of
• H6 'Toxic` yielding another substance with hazardous
characteristics.
• H7 'Carcinogenic`
• H14 'Ecotoxic`: substances and
• H8 'Corrosive` preparations which present immediate or
• H9 'Infectious` delayed risks for the environment.

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 U.S. EPA Definition
– Ignitability – Can create fires under certain conditions, are
spontaneously combustible, or have a flash point less than 60
°C (140 °F). Ex: waste oils & used solvents.
– Corrosivity – Acids or bases (pH<2, or >12.5) that are capable
of corroding metal containers. Ex: battery acid.
– Reactivity – Unstable under normal conditions. They can cause
explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when heated,
compressed, or mixed with water. Ex: explosives.
– Toxicity – Harmful or fatal when ingested or absorbed. Ex:
mercury, lead.

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 Ignitable Waste Characteristics
• Flashpoint less than 60°C
• Oxidizing materials
• Solids which are combustible through reaction
or will ignite and burn vigorously & persistently
• Ignitable compressed gases
Examples: Oil based paint, aerosol cans, cylinders,
paint thinner, solvent or oil soaked rags, nitrates,
acetone, toluene, epoxy, turpentine, etc.

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 Corrosive Waste Characteristics

• pH less than 2 or greater than 12.5

– Examples:
• Acids – (pH less than 7)
Hydrochloric acid, acetic acid, sulfuric acid,
phosphoric acid,
• Bases – (pH greater than 7)
Sodium hydroxide, ammonia, ammonium
hydroxide, bicarbonates,
sodium hypochlorite (bleach)

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 Toxic Waste Characteristics
• Heavy Metals (As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Pb, Hg, Se, Ag)
• Examples: Mercury Thermometers, Lead
Paints
• Solvents
• Examples: Paint Thinner, Acetone,
Methanol, Toluene, Xylenes
• Pesticides and Herbicides
• Examples: Endrin, Lindane,
Methoxychlor, Chlordane

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 CLASSIFICATION
A) TESTING
Any of the four following characteristics will
make a waste hazardous:
• Corrosivity – highly acidic or alkaline
• Ignitability – fire hazard
• Reactivity – explosive
• Toxicity

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 CLASSICATION
B) LISTS
• Bound by various legal documents
• Country- and context-specific.
• Ex: U.S.
– F-list: nonspecific source wastes
– K-list: specific source wastes
– P- and U-lists: commercial chemical products or
manufacturing intermediates

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 F-LISTED WASTES
If the chemicals you are using appear on this list,
they are REGULATED HAZARDOUS WASTE
(regardless of quantity or the actual hazard they may present)

• Spent halogenated solvents including:

• 1,1,1-trichloroethane Chlorobenzene Tetrachloroethylene
1,1,2-trichloroethane Methylene chloride Trichloroethylene
Spent non-halogenated solvents including:
2-ethoxyethanol Cyclohexanone Methanol
• 2-nitropropane Ethyl acetate Methyl ethyl ketone
Acetone Ethyl benzene Methyl isobutyl ketone
Benzene Ethyl ether Pyridine
• Carbon disulfide Isobutanol Toluene
Cresols N-butyl alcohol Xylene
• Cresylic acid Nitrobenzene
•

• Discarded unused formulations containing tri-, tetra-, or pentachlorophenol or

discarded unused formulations
containing compounds derived from these chlorophenols.
The full list of F-listed wastes can be found in your Hazardous Waste Management
Manual.

ALL F-listed liquids AND waste debris contaminated with

F-listed liquids must be collected and managed as a
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Hazardous Waste.
 HW Generators
• Heavy Industries (Chemical, leather, paper,
metal, etc.)
• Biological Waste Generators (Laboratories &
Medical Hospitals)
• Households (Dyes, Solvents)
• Trasporters (Spills & Accidents)
• Farmers (Pesticides & Fertiizers)
• Military (Explosives)

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 Typical Hazardous Wastes Generated by
Selected Industries
• Chemical manufacturers • Metal Manufacturing
– Strong acids and bases – Strong acids and bases
– Reactive wastes – Cyanide wastes
– Ignitable wastes – Sludges containing heavy
• Vehicle maintenance shops metals
– Paint wastes • Cleaning agents and
– Ignitable wastes cosmetic manufacturing,
– Spent solvents household HW
– Ignitable wastes
– Solvents

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 Small and Medium Scale Industries

• In developing economies, these types of industries often

play a major role in HW generation
• Typically they have:
– low level of technology
– unskilled management
– unspecialised workers
– lack of modernisation
– poor environmental performance
• There are high risks from occupational and environmental
exposure

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 HW management hierarchy
• Source reduction: Ex. process modification,
material substitution/elimination
• Recycling/Reuse: Ex. use as fuel. reclamation
(repurposing)
• Treatment: physical/chemical/biological, ex.
incineration, oxidation
• Disposal: discharge, injection, disposal

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Approaches to Waste Minimization

• Substitution of raw materials

• Manufacturing process changes
• Substitution of products
• Recycling (also referred to as recovery and
reuse)
• Source separation (or segregation)

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HAZARDOUS WASTE
MANAGEMENT

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Waste Hierarchy –
Hazardous Waste

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 Life Cycle of a
Hazardous Material/Waste

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HEALTH ISSUES & RISK
ASSESSMENT

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 RISK ASSESSMENT

• A qualitative or quantitative evaluation of the

environmental and/or health risk resulting from
exposure to a chemical or physical agent (pollutant);
combines exposure assessment results with toxicity
assessment results to estimate risk.

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 Categories of Risk
• Identified
– Acceptable
– Unacceptable
• Unidentified
• Risk management addresses unacceptable
risk.
• Residual risk is the unidentified risk plus any
acceptable, identified risk remaining after risk
management.
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 Characterizing Risk
• Exposure - How big of a problem is it?
– Global, regional, local?
• Severity - How bad will it get?
• Probability - How likely is it to occur?
– Daily, weekly, monthly, annually, in emergencies,
only when a certain event happens, when a new
project starts?

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 RISK ASSESSMENT

– Risk Assessment can be used;

• Conduct a baseline analysis of a site or facility to
determine the need for remedial action and extent of
clean up required.
• Develop clean up goals for contaminants
• Construct what-if scenarios
• Evaluate existing and new technologies for effective
control, or migration of hazards and risks
• Select sites for hazardous facilities such as incinerators
and waste storage.
• Provide a scientific basis for corporate risk-reduction
and management program.
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 Risk from Hazardous Substances
• Pathways • Effect
– Hepatic (liver functions)
– Oral
– Neurological
– Inhalation
– Hematologic
– Contact
– Reproductive
• Exposure Period
– Respiratory
– Acute
– Gastrointestinal
– Sub-acute
– Endocrinological (hormones)
– Sub-chronic
– Immunological
– Chronic
– Muscular
– Renal
– Dermatological 27
 Exposure Period
• Acute: One day
• Sub-acute: Ten days
• Sub-chronic: Two weeks – seven years
• Chronic: Seven years - Lifetime

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Activity 1
Hazardous substances – Organics
• Example: Methyl t-Butyl Ether
– A colorless, flammable liquid with high vapor
pressure
– Gasoline additive (increases octane rating)
– Also used in industry (solvent) & in clinical
medicine (dissolves gallstones)
Pathway Duration Dose Effect
Inhalation Acute 2 ppm Neurological
Inhalation Intermediate 0.7 ppm Neurological
Inhalation Chronic 0.7 ppm Renal
Oral Acute 0.4 mg/kg/day Neurological
Oral Intermediate 0.3 mg/kg/day Hepatic
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Hazardous substances – Organics
• Solvents:
– Some of them are carcinogenic (i.e. TCE)
• Trichloroethylene: colorless liquid which is used as a
solvent for cleaning metal parts.
– Breathing small amounts may cause headaches, lung
irritation, dizziness, poor coordination, and difficulty
concentrating.
– Breathing large amounts may cause impaired heart
function, unconsciousness, and death.
– Breathing it for long periods may cause nerve, kidney, and
liver damage.
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Hazardous substances – Organics

• PCB’s cause cancer in animals and are probably

carcinogenic in humans.
• Recent evidence suggests that PCBs might also have
adverse reproductive, developmental, and endocrine
effects.
• The manufacture of PCBs has been banned since 1977.

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 Hazardous substances – Organics

• Cyanide: very toxic

– Exposure to high levels of cyanide harms the brain and heart,
and may cause coma and death.
– Exposure to lower levels may result in breathing difficulties,
heart pains, vomiting, blood changes, headaches, and
enlargement of the thyroid gland.
– Non-carcinogen

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 Hazardous substances – Metals
• Asbestos:
– Used for its insulative properties
– Carcinogen – Various organs, especially lungs
• Mercury:
– The nervous system is very sensitive to all forms of
mercury.
– Exposure can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and
developing fetus.
– Effects on brain functioning may result in irritability,
shyness, tremors, changes in vision or hearing, and
memory problems.
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Activity 2
 Hazardous substances – Metals
• Batteries:
– Contain Cd, Ni, Pb, Zn, Hg, etc.
– Releases to atmosphere if burned
– Not allowed in MSW landfills
• Lead: Affects
– nervous system,
– hematological and cardiovascular systems,
– Kidney
– Could potentially affect any system or organs in
the body 39
 Hazardous substances – Metals
• Arsenic:
– most common cause of acute heavy metal poisoning in
adults.
– Target organs are the blood, kidneys, and central nervous,
digestive, and skin systems
• Cadmium:
– Target organs are the liver, placenta, kidneys, lungs, brain,
and bones.
• Chromium:
– Ingesting large amounts of chromium(VI) can cause
stomach upsets and ulcers, convulsions, kidney and liver
damage, and even death. 40
 Example Case: Minamata Disease
• Minamata disease (or “Chisso-Minamata disease”) is a
neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury
poisoning.
• Symptoms
– ataxia (inability to coordinate muscular movement),
– numbness in the hands and feet
– general muscular weakness
– narrowing of the field of vision
– damage to hearing and speech
– insanity, paralysis, coma and death within weeks of the onset of
symptoms (extreme cases)
– can also affect fetus in the womb.
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 Example Case: Minamata Disease
• First discovered in Minamata city in Kumamoto Prefecture,
Japan, in 1956
• It was caused by the release of methylmercury (CH3Hg+) in
the industrial wastewater from 1932 to 1968. This highly
toxic chemical bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish in
Minamata Bay and the Shranui Sea
• Local population has been subjected in mercury poisoning
• As of March 2001, 2,265 victims had been officially
recognised (1,784 of whom had died)

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Phases of Risk Assessment
DATA COLLECTION

HAZARD IDENTIFICATION

DOSE-RESPONSE EXPOSURE
ASSESSMENT ASSESSMENT

RISK CHARACTERIZATION

RISK MANAGEMENT
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 Risk Assessment - Goals
• Estimate exposure, severity, and probability
for each impact
• Prepare relative rank for each impact
• Compare impacts to determine significance

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 PHASES of RISK ASSESMENT

1) Data Collection:
The data is coming from studies of occupational exposures
of workers, community exposures, university research,
medical records, toxicology data etc.
2) Hazard Identification
Process of determining if a particular chemical is causally
linked to a particular health effect such as cancer or birth
defect.

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 PHASES of RISK ASSESMENT

3) Dose Response Assessment

Process of characterizing relation between dose of an
agent and the incidence of an adverse health effect.
Relationships vary with respect to the conditions,
Two types of responses are,
• Non-threshold effects : for carcinogens
• Threshold effects : for non-carcinogens.

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 PHASES of RISK ASSESMENT

For carcinogens,
• Cancer Slope Factor (CSF): is a conservative estimate of
incremental probability of a person contracting cancer from a
unit intake of chemical over a lifetime

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 PHASES of RISK ASSESMENT

For non-carcinogens
• No observable adverse effect level (NOAEL): A certain quantity
of substance is needed before any adverse effect observed.
• Lowest observable adverse effect level (LOAEL): A certain
quantity of substance where adverse effects started to be
observed.
• LD50: The dose assocated with a 50% lethal response
• LC50: Similar to LD50 but it is a concentration value. Used to
measure lethality via exposure or inhalation in an aqueous
solution.
• Reference Dose (RfD) is daily dose of a substance that is likely to
be without appreciable risk to human population
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 PHASES of RISK ASSESMENT

* Slope of the line is called “Cancer Slope Factor” 50

Safety Margin Sub-lethal
(No effect) Range Lethal
Range

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 PHASES of RISK ASSESMENT

4) Exposure Assessment: The determination of magnitude,

frequency, duration, and routes of exposure of human
populations and ecosystems.

“How much are we ingesting/inhaling/absorbing?”

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Activity 3
Activity 4
Activity 5

EF
Activity 6

EF
 PHASES of RISK ASSESMENT

5) Risk Characterization
Toxicology and exposure data are combined to obtain a
qualitative or quantitative expression of risk.

‘How can we quantify the risk?”

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 PHASES of RISK ASSESMENT
• Non-cancer Risks:
– Expressed in terms of hazard quotient (HQ) for single
substance or hazard index (HI) (sum of HQs).
– HQ<RfD => Hazards are not considered as a threat for public
health.
– Hazard Index=Chemical daily intake / RfD
– Hazard index should be < 1
• Cancer Risks:
– Incremental lifetime risks.
– Risk = Chemical daily intake * Slope factor

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Activity 7

HI = CDI / RfD
Activity 8