The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making changes to the Hazardous Waste regulations.
What They Think reported that the EPA has made some changes to its “generator standard” with regards to the “safe disposal of hazardous waste” and that the printing industry had been involved with the process as well as other industries.
Kathy Lett, Environmental Protection Specialist at the US EPA, explained that “The Resource Conversation and Recovery Act was first enacted by Congress in 1976” and part of its work is to manage solid and hazardous waste. “The goals of the program are protecting human health and the environment, conserving energy and natural resources, and reducing the amount of waste generated.”
She added that: “We heard over the years that the structure of the Federal generator regulations are hard to follow,” which is why there are 60 changes to the “generator standard”. The new terms for the three categories of generators are; “Very Small Quantity Generators (VSQG), or those that generate less than 27 gallons of hazardous waste per month (this is a category that was renamed; it had been called “conditionally exempt”); Small Quantity Generators (SQG), who generate 27 to 275 gallons per month; and Large Quantity Generators (LQG), who generate more than 275 gallons per month”.
This makes it easier for generators to define which category they identify with and what the regulations are for them, Letts commented: “We think that the improved reorganization is going to be better for everyone in the long run, both for understanding the rules and implementing them at your site.”
It was noted by Marci Kinter, Vice President, Government and Business Information for SGIA that “[printers] may be going from an analog to a digital process and all of a sudden they have all this analog ink they don’t know what to do with. Now […] printers who are looking to change out chemicals or maybe have old chemicals on site will have an opportunity to dispose of these chemicals safely through the new episodic generation element.”
The identification of hazardous waste requires clarification for industries to “Effectively complying with the hazardous waste disposal” and Kinter said: “Everyone generates some hazardous waste, although they may not consider it hazardous waste. If you are a wide-format printer, you do need to ensure that when you empty out your ink cartridges and you have extra ink in the lines, you need to determine if the waste ink is indeed hazardous and then dispose of it correctly.”
The new regulations give more guidance for the application of the rules and Kinter said that: “Often, the wide-format printer—or printer using any digital system—doesn’t realize that you can’t take the ink that remains in the line or the solvent you use to back flush your line and just pour it down the drain or put it out with the trash.”