Wastes come in a variety of forms, are produced in a variety of ways, and can be placed into single or multiple categories using various methods.
Hopefully you all are finding value in these. A little education goes a long way, and we hope to keep posting these to improve your waste knowledge and hopefully it gets you thinking about how this information can be applied to your waste programs.
Last time we talked about the regulations surrounding waste. If you missed it, check it out here https://www.wiqtech.com/blog/blog/wiq-waste-wizard-wisdom-the-basics-part2.
For this post we will go over the different types of waste out there and what it means when people talk about characterization and classification.
Wastes come in a variety of forms, are produced in a variety of ways, and can be placed into single or multiple categories using various methods.
When we talk about the different types of waste out there, we usually speak about them in broad general terms and place them into broad general categories due to this variable nature. It really comes down to who, what, where, and how the materials are produced and managed.
At the highest-level wastes can be broken down, by their source into residential waste or non-residential (a.k.a. Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (ICI)) waste.
We start at the origin because as we further categorize you will have a lot of cross over between the two, as you can produce the same materials at home or through a business.
ICI can even be broken down further based on the regulations required to manage the materials. From our last post you may remember that, typically, oil & gas wastes are regulated differently, so we can break out these wastes into their own separate category from the rest of the ICI world.
The next step down the chain is whether the materials are a waste or are a recyclable. This is due to the different ways these materials are managed. Wastes are sent for final disposal, and recyclables are processed and converted into new materials.
Once we know the origin, and if the materials are a waste or recyclable, we can dive a little deeper based on their composition and properties. Materials can be organic, inorganic, inert, hazardous, non-hazardous, dangerous, non-dangerous, a liquid, a solid, a sludge, acidic, alkaline, flammable, biodegradable, non-biodegradable and an indefinite number of other characteristics.
The variability is one of the main sources of confusion in the waste world. Waste management systems are complex and intertwined, but for a reason. To offer an integrated solution for ensuring your wastes are being managed appropriately and safely.
Ensuring which category your materials fall into will ensure you have the base information required to make appropriate characterization and classification decisions for your materials.
As we expand on the concepts of characterization and classification, we will be doing this from an ICI standpoint as, typically, things are stricter in this space. From our last post, there is going to be an Act/Regulation that is required to be followed and it may even be a condition in an operating permit or regulatory approval.
Characterization is figuring out the physical, chemical, and toxicological characteristics of a waste to classify the materials. Essentially, what exactly did we produce and from the list of properties that we need to check for (from the regulations), what is the value for each of those.
Basic characterization typically includes:
But depending on the material you may also want to know:
The above is not exhaustive, but it is a pretty good start.
The best way to ensure you are characterizing your wastes is through lab analysis. Taking a sample and sending it to an accredited lab is realistically the only way to determine the characteristics. The labs should have an appropriate set of tests they can run and the report that they give back to you will have associated values that you can now use to compare against regulatory limits. This is step 1 in the classification process!
Classification uses the data gathered during characterization to sort the material into specific regulatory categories.
Because of how the regulations work (see… this is why we did a post on regulations first) you will typically have 4 categories based on the provincial and federal regulations.
You will have waste or recyclable materials that are:
Hazardous and a Dangerous Goods (e.g., Off-spec chemicals)
Hazardous and NOT a Dangerous Goods (e.g., Leachable waste)
Non-Hazardous and a Dangerous Goods (e.g., Asbestos)
Non-Hazardous and NOT a Dangerous Goods (e.g., Empty Plastic Containers)
Now these will change based on each regulatory jurisdiction as each jurisdiction will have their own set of wastes that are either designated or exempted from being hazardous.
If you are shipping across and international or a provincial border, you will need to ensure you are classifying your materials for both jurisdictions. So, a little layer of complexity there.
Whatever the classification decision is, you need to need to need to write it down and document it. This will save you a tonne of time and headaches if something happens or you get audited.
There are a few other mechanisms that you can use to classify your materials such as a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) or Generator Knowledge. I will leave these for the next post as I want to be able to fully explain the concepts behind them and how to appropriately document your decisions.
If you have any questions or topics that you want expanded on, reach out to us at support@wiqtech.com and we can make sure we cover them.
