How is the management and disposal of special waste

 The issue of the management and disposal of special waste is fundamental in order to reduce environmental pollution and the impact of anthropogenic activities on the planet. For this reason, it is important to regulate the matter at a legislative level: it is a matter of public interest and it is necessary that there is national legislation on the matter.

Before understanding how to properly manage and dispose of waste, and in particular special waste, it is necessary to know what the law says about it. waste is defined as “Any substance or object that the holder discards or intends or is obliged to discard”. It is important to underline that the holder is not necessarily the one who produces the waste, but the one who has it in charge. And it is this latter subject who is in charge of managing it, recycling it or disposing of it.

As regards the division of waste, these are divided into two main categories:

·         The municipal waste , produced civil level, or by private citizens

·         The special waste , produced by commercial and industrial activities and the medical and veterinary research

Here we will deal in particular with the second category, ie waste produced by companies.

Waste management: the loading and unloading register

That waste producers are obliged to keep an loading and unloading register in which to record all information on waste, both in terms of quantity (i.e. the volume of waste produced ) in terms of quality (ie concerning the type of waste produced). This information must be noted in the register within 10 working days from the production of the waste and its discharge and communicated to the Land Registry.

Companies that exceed 10 tons per year of non-hazardous waste (i.e. that do not require disposal in specific plants) and 2 tons of hazardous waste per year (i.e. those that have a potential negative impact on environment and therefore must be treated specifically) can also delegate the compilation of the register of loading and unloading by service companies that annotate the data monthly. The important thing is that the registers are made available at any time by the supervisory authority , upon specific request.

Transport and storage

It deals with the storage of waste and in particular the temporary storage of waste. In the case of hazardous waste, the utmost attention must be paid because the temporary storage must take place in compliance with the current legislation that provides for the storage, packaging and labeling of the hazardous substances contained therein.

As regards the management and disposal of special waste, therefore, the choice of areas dedicated to temporary storage is very important and they must be properly marked and delimited, in order to avoid any possible dispersion of hazardous substances. The necessary information labels must also be present on the containers of special waste, which determines their origin, process of generating activity and type of waste generated. the case of hazardous waste and in the case of non-hazardous waste.

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The transport of waste must take place inside special packages . However, it is necessary to distinguish those that are hazardous waste according to the waste legislation, i.e. those that have an EWC code followed by a *, and those waste that are hazardous according to the transport of dangerous goods ADR and which are therefore assigned to a UN number. Let's analyze the case of a dangerous waste similar to ADR. Starting from the UN number and the quantity of goods to be shipped, the correct packaging must be identified and, once identified; the packages must be marked with:

The analysis of rejection

Another very important aspect is the analysis of rejection . First of all because it defines the non-dangerousness or the dangerousness of the same and, in the second case, the type of danger, thus allowing effective management and adequate disposal.

Furthermore, if changes are made to the production cycle of a waste or to the composition of the waste itself, the analysis of the waste must be repeated, in order to guarantee maximum safety for the environment and human health.

Analysis is, therefore, an activity aimed at the correct classification of the waste. For example, data from laboratory analyzes are also essential for the correct assignment of the UN number. It is important to know that there are cases in which the analysis can be avoided, such as when a product is disposed of without ever having been contaminated and that, therefore, retains all its initial dangerous or non-dangerous characteristics.

The disposal of special waste

As we have seen, once the waste has been produced it can remain in the place of production according to the directives of the temporary storage. At this point, the waste must be disposed of and in this regard the manufacturer has two possible options:

1) Send the waste to the appropriate recovery or disposal plants every 3 months, regardless of the quantity produced

2) send the waste to the appropriate recovery or disposal plants within 1 year of production , if the quantity is less than 30 cubic meters of which a maximum of 10 cubic meters of hazardous waste.

With disposal, which takes place in special plants according to the nature and danger of the waste, the life cycle of a special hazardous or non-hazardous waste is definitively concluded.