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A hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment. There are four factors that determine whether or not a substance is hazardous:
Valley of the Drums, a toxic waste site in Kentucky, United States, 1980. U.S. environmental laws (see Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) additionally describe a "hazardous waste" as a waste (usually a solid waste) that has the potential to:
These wastes may be found in different physical states such as gaseous, liquids, or solids. Furthermore, a hazardous waste is a special type of waste because it cannot be disposed of by common means like other by-products of our everyday lives. Depending on the physical state of the waste, treatment and solidification processes might be available. In other cases, however, there is not much that can be done to prevent harm. Radioactive waste is a waste product containing radioactive material. It is usually the product of a nuclear process such as nuclear fission, though industries not directly connected to the nuclear power industry may also produce radioactive waste. Radioactivity diminishes over time, so in principle the waste needs to be isolated for a period of time until it no longer poses a hazard. This can mean hours to years for some common medical or industrial radioactive wastes, or thousands of years for high-level wastes from nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons reprocessing. The majority of radioactive waste is "low-level waste", meaning it has low levels of radioactivity per mass or volume. The main approaches to managing radioactive waste to date have been segregation and storage for short-lived wastes, near-surface disposal for low and some intermediate level wastes, and deep burial or transmutation for the long-lived, high-level wastes. A summary of the amounts of radioactive wastes and management approaches for most developed countries are presented and reviewed periodically as part of the IAEA Joint Convention on Safety of Spent Fuel Management and the Safety of Radioactive Waste Management. Toxic waste is waste material that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It spreads quite easily and can contaminate lakes and rivers. The term is often used interchangeably with “hazardous wasteâ€Â, or discarded material that can pose a long-term risk to health or environment. As with most pollution problems, toxic waste began to be a significant issue during the industrial revolution. It usually is the product of industry or commerce, but also comes from residential use (e.g. cleaning products, cosmetics, lawn care products), agriculture (e.g. chemical fertilizers, pesticides), the military (nuclear weapons testing, chemical warfare), medical facilities (e.g. pharmaceuticals), radioactive sources, and light industry, such as dry cleaning establishments. Toxic waste comes in many forms, such as liquid, solid, or sludge, and it contains chemicals, heavy metals, radioisotopes, dangerous pathogens, or other toxins . In the United States, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state departments oversee the rules that regulate hazardous waste. The EPA requires that toxic waste be handled with special precautions and be disposed of in designated facilities around the country. Also, many cities in the United States have collection days where household toxic waste is gathered. Some materials that are unaccepted at regular landfills are ammunition, commercially generated waste, explosives/shock sensitive items, hypodermic needles/syringes, medical waste, radioactive materials, smoke detectors, trash/recyclables, and unknown materials.. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : Collection of hazardous waste |
