Hazardous or RCRA Waste Disposal

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

RCRA was enacted in 1976 as a response to national environmental disasters. Its purpose is to define hazardous waste, encourage waste minimization, and provide a system of “beginning to end” tracking of hazardous waste.

Since the word “hazardous” is used in multiple contexts within healthcare, it is important to recognize that we are not talking about medical biohazard waste disposal, OSHA hazardous materials as featured in Employee Right to Know programs, or DOT hazardous substances, per se. The EPA has an entirely different set of criteria for defining hazardous chemical waste, such as chemicals that are compounded and manufactured and become pharmaceuticals because it impacts human health and the environment when discarded.

In addition to defining “solid waste,” which also includes liquids and gases, the RCRA regulations define hazardous waste as those chemicals or formulations deemed to be so detrimental to the environment that they must be segregated for treatment at a hazardous waste facility, which can be known as a TSDF, or a Treatment, Storage, and Disposal Facility. These facilities can take care of biohazard sharps disposal.

Defining Hazardous Waste Categories

Hazardous wastes are divided into two main categories: listed wastes and characteristic wastes.

Listed Wastes

Listed wastes appear on one of four lists of hazardous waste (F, K, P, and U). Healthcare facilities will typically have only HW from two of these lists, the P and U lists (such as pharmaceuticals), which both contain commercial chemical products. Laboratories and veterinarian clinics may also have F-listed solvent waste.

Characteristic Wastes

Characteristic wastes are regulated because they exhibit certain hazardous properties: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity.

Characteristic Hazardous Waste (40 CFR Parts 261.21 – 261.24)

In addition to the P- and U-listed wastes, a waste is considered hazardous under RCRA if it possesses at least one of four unique and measurable properties or characteristics:

• (1) ignitability,
• (2) corrosivity,
• (3) reactivity, or
• (4) toxicity.

As the generator, you are responsible for determining whether a drug formulation that is intended for discard is either a listed hazardous waste or exhibits one of the four hazardous waste characteristics through testing or knowledge of the drug formulation.

New Pharma Rule

The new EPA Pharmaceutical Rule, Management Standards for Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals and Amendment to the P075 Listing for Nicotine, was published in the Federal Register on February 22, 2019. The final rule became effective on August 21, 2019 (six months after being published) in states that do not have RCRA authorization. The other 48 states have two years to adopt the rule. Below is a list of states that have adopted the rule as of September 2020:

The new rule revises management standards for the management of “Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals (HWPs)” for all health care facilities, including long-term care facilities, as defined in the rule.