Household Hazardous Waste and What to do If You Find it

Hazardous Household Waste

Household hazardous waste materials include many things that you probably are storing right now in your garage, basement, bathroom, or kitchen. Some, like paint thinner or car batteries, are pretty obvious, but there are many that you might not ordinarily think of such as polishes, insecticides, mercury thermometers and glues. Household garbage should be contained in in your Town-provided rollout cart. Please seal garbage in plastic bags.
Hazardous Household Waste is defined as items containing ingredients that could be harmful to humans, pets or the environment. These include common items found in many households, such as cleaning products, paint, and garden chemicals.



Watch this excellent video (below) for information on how to recognise and dispose of household hazardous waste responsibly







Hazardous waste is mostly produced by industry where strict legislation is imposed on these processes due to their hazardous emissions such as heavy metals, but the household presence of this material can be dangerous too.



Hazardous waste is a particular class of "solid" waste (which includes solid, liquid, or gaseous material) which, if improperly managed, poses a substantial threat or potential hazard to human health and the environment. Typical wastes generated at many factories include, but are not limited to: spent solvents, waste laboratory chemicals, waste paints and used oil. Some of these will be hazardous and others not, so the skill is in ensuring that all are properly disposed of in the right manner.



Hazardous waste is a term applied to those wastes that because of their chemical reactivity, toxicity, explosiveness, corrosiveness, radioactivity or other characteristics, constitutes a risk to human health or the environment. Such wastes maybe generated as a by-product in the manufacturing processes or maybe generated from the use of various catalysts, which need to be disposed off when spent.



The European Commission has issued a Directive on the controlled management of such waste (91/689/EEC) and hazardous waste is defined on the basis of a list, the European Waste Catalogue, drawn up under that Directive. Hazardous waste is generated by all sectors of society, from large industry, to small businesses, households, schools and farms. It is for the most part managed by the professional hazardous waste industry and is treated appropriately and in accordance with legal requirements.



If you think that a material may be hazardous ask to see the Material safety data sheets (MSDSs) or CSSH sheets containing the risk data for that material. These datasheets are a commonly used source of information for this analysis. If a material is chemically unchanged (e.g., uncontaminated ink), the MSDS would be representative of the material as a waste. Materials that are not going to be used (mixed or concentrated) shall be managed in accordance with the instructions on the specific guidelines issued by the supplier.



Regulations require a permit for the transport of hazardous waste on public roads. Discharging hazardous wastes and chemicals in sinks is prohibited by wastewater regulations in most nations.



Regulations were adopted in 1991 pertaining to the transportation of non-hazardous waste within the State of Maine. Unless exempt, all vehicles and/or containers transporting non-hazardous waste within the state must have a license. In the UK there are regulations under what is called the duty of care which apply to the transport of all waste materials, and are particularly important in tracking hazardous waste materials to ensure proper disposal takes place.



Household waste is exempted from being regulated as hazardous waste in most nations. Nevertheless, it should not be disposed of indiscriminately. Households, small businesses, farms and the healthcare and construction sectors also generate large quantities of hazardous waste including batteries, electrical equipment, healthcare risk waste, solvent based paint, varnish waste, sheep dip and fluorescent lamps.



Garbage, and garden waste for composting will usually be collected weekly, while recycling rubbish will continue to be collected bi-weekly. Special collection is needed for large amounts of hazardous waste such as asbestos, and special regulations apply to dealing with such which must always be done by qualified experts.



Hazardous waste should never be disposed of with regular household waste, unless the containers are completely empty, as they can cause harm to people and to the environment. This includes used batteries, leftover pesticides, or cleaning products. Always seek advice from an expert unless you are certain of the material and how to safely dispose of it.



Take care because these things can be hazardous to you, hazardous to your family and hazardous to our environment if not used up or disposed of properly.
Disposing of household chemicals in your trash is dangerous. When mixed, household chemicals such as bleach and ammonia cause poisonous gases and fumes or cause fires. Dispose with normal curbside garbage. Residents are asked to remove the lid and allow the paint to dry up before placing on the curb.



Hazardous household waste should not be disposed of in the same way as regular waste. For example, a gasoline drum buried in the ground can affect rivers and find its way into drinking water.



In some countries and states hazardous waste was collected at home or at receiving stations (bring/drop off-sites) in one country this applied to 415 municipalities in 2001. The corresponding figure for 1997 was 136. Hazardous products have four classifications: flammable , poisonous , corrosive and reactive (explosive). Federal law requires that products with hazardous ingredients be labeled.



Household hazardous wastes may also, subject to special arrangements in some states be collected by special waste collection vehicles, which tour in the metropolitan area.



So, take advice from your local waste officer, but if you have very small amounts of hazardous material in your household waste you probably can discard it in your household rubbish for collection. Any larger amount as we have said already must be discussed with your waste expert locally. All local laws must be complied with.



If you liked this article, then Steve Evans tells you how it is on other subjects too. Click on the link that follows to see more about the Waste Settlement ebook. Also visit The Environmental Waste solutions blog.

The Role of Biology in Environment

The Role of Biology in Environment is surprisingly large...

Biology is the study of life and comprises all levels from the molecular to the global.



Biology is the study living organisms, their organization and their functions and biology is a large part of the way our environment evolved from simple organisms and is thus intimately part of our environment.



Biology is a very broad field, covering the minute workings of chemical machines inside our cells, to broad scale concepts of ecosystems and global climate change. Biologists study subjects which range from intimate details of the human brain, the composition of our genes, and even the functioning of our reproductive system to the building blocks of the simplest organisms on earth which created our oxygen rich atmosphere capable of supporting higher life forms. Without biological processes you and I would not exist, nor the planet as we know it.



Watch our video below to find out more about biology







Biological systems in contrast to physical are vastly more complex, their function based on small numbers of units (atoms, molecules, cells) that are not at equilibrium. There are no biological laws of nature the way we find them in physics; the first and second law of thermodynamics, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, Newton's law of gravity etc.



The supreme importance of the role of biology in environment can be seen if we consider biotechnology. Biotechnology, as Aldous Huxley foresaw in Brave New World (1932), can usher in as profound a revolution as industrialization did in the early 19th century. It will parallel vast other themes the expansion of artificial intelligence, the opening of the inner solar system to economic use, and much, much more.



Biologists tolerate a level of mystery in their work that would drive your average engineer or computer programmer crazy. Biologists can see that role of biology in environment has shaped our very nature and being. Just look at the human genome studies that have been done. The biologists have put together a complete rough draft of the human genome but they have little understanding of how those 40,000 or so genes work together and interact with our environment to make a human.



Biologists, geneticists, and doctors have had limited success in curing complex diseases such as cancer, HIV, and diabetes because traditional biology generally looks at only a few aspects of an organism at a time. Again, we would suggest that this is due to the role of biology in environment which is so complex that the unraveling of these interactions is only now beginning to be discovered.



Biological processes of course are consequences of physics and chemistry, which is why we require biology students to study the physical sciences. But organisms are also historical entities molded by their environment both physical and social, and that’s where the complexities arise.



Synthetic Biologists build artificial biological systems in an analogous way, using individual components such as single genes and enzymes for which the reactivity and the products formed are accurately known. Synthetic biology will catch up even faster when it appreciates role of biology in environment. Assembly of simple synthetic circuits using DNA fibers has been demonstrated.



Systems Biology is the application of mathematical/physical modeling to understanding the functions of biological processes. It describes a multi-component approach, combining theoretical modeling with real data about the interaction between genes and their products within the environment. Arising from this is the need to interpret large datasets of complex biological information. It seeks to integrate the knowledge derived from the study of individual components of cells to their performance as integral elements of cells, tissues and populations.



So, in summary we are suggesting that the role of biology in environment cannot be ignored at any level, nor could the reverse be true. Throughout evolution environment has influenced the development of biological systems which in their turn have fed back into the environment and changed the environment to the one in which we live today. The role of biology in environment is simply to have made the environment in which we all live our lives.



Steve Evans has written for the Wastersblog since 2006. It recently received nearly 50,000 hits in a month, and continues to grow. If you have any interest in waste ebook downloads for FREE! shouldn't you take a look? Also visit Environmental Solutions for Waste blog.