Hazardous Waste

what does it mean?

The prevailing definition ut un international level is given by the Basel Convention on monitoring of cross-border transfer of hazardous waste und their disposal Explosive, inflammable fuel, toxic, infectious, corrosive: based on these characteristics, in Appendix III the Convention defines 14 categories of hazardousness qualifications which cover liquid, solid and gaseous emissions, immediate and delayed effects as well us substances resulting from disposal of the waste.

It also establishes lists of materials and hazardous waste subject to its application ”provided it does not possess one of the characteristics set out in Appendix III”. Conversely, waste not apparently covered bg the Convention but containing substances identified as hazardous shall be considered as hazardous if those substances are ”at sufficient concentration that they possess one of the characteristics set out in Appendix III”.

The range of waste covered may also in particular change according to national definitions of the Convention’s Signatory States. The OECD’s rulings and European legislation incorporate the lists and criteria in the Basel Convention.

In the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the only major industrialized country not to have ratified the Basel Convention, the United States, also defines hazardous waste according to characteristics of hazardousness – inflammable, corrosive, reactive, toxic – and by their inclusion in lists which distinguish sources or types of hazardous waste oil refining, production of pesticides, obsolete phytosanitary and pharmaceutical products, etc. The label ”special waste” meanwhile has no legal weight but relates to an industrial approach. It covers waste which, without necessarily being hazardous, can be combined with non-hazardous waste and household waste, and whose treatment and recovery is likely to involve specific technologies. Recovery by Veolia Environmental Services of waste food oils for the purpose of producing biofuels is one illustration of this.