Regulation of Laboratory Waste

In applying regulations designed to address large-scale industrial operations to laboratories, disproportionate environmental regulatory burdens are inappropriately placed on many academic, commercial, and government laboratories.  Research, development, instructional and service laboratories generate a broad range of small quantities of hazardous wastes, but are forced to individually manage each type of waste with the same rigor applied to those who create large amounts of relatively few wastes.  By applying an industrial regulatory scheme to laboratories, unintended, ineffective, and inappropriate burdens are placed on these facilities.

The American Chemical Society is committed to environmental, health, and safety in all of the operations of the chemical enterprise, but excessive regulation of laboratories hampers their efficiency and effectiveness and slows the progress of science and technology.  To this end, the American Chemical Society makes the following recommendations.

Consistent interpretation of regulations by state and federal agencies
The U.S. regulatory system involves multiple federal and state regulators.  This often leads to inconsistent interpretations and makes development of “best practices” for waste management treatment difficult. State regulations must be at least as stringent as related federal ones.  For consistency, when a state regulation is identical to the federal, that regulation should be interpreted and enforced in an identical manner.

·        ACS encourages consistent interpretation and enforcement of regulations at the state and federal levels.

Simplification of paperwork
In the current regulatory system, laboratories are burdened by duplicative, unnecessary, and ineffective paperwork.  As an example, laboratories are required to notify waste disposal facilities of EPA’s disposal requirements for each waste.  This requirement for land disposal restriction notification is duplicative because these disposal facilities already know how they are required to handle the wastes and any information relevant to health and safety issues is transmitted by the laboratories on other required forms.  The burden of this useless form is almost exclusively placed on laboratories since it must only be completed once for each type of waste.  Major industrial facilities disposing of large amounts of routine waste complete the form only at the inception of a new process, but laboratories have to treat most wastes as unique and fill out the paperwork for each shipment.

·        ACS recommends the elimination of unnecessary paperwork and encourages the use of more efficient transfer of information through means such as electronic systems.

Hazardous Waste Identification
Identifying regulated hazardous waste is a challenging task in the laboratory setting.  Currently, some jurisdictions effectively require that research scientists perform these tasks.  This can lead to inconsistency in making these determinations.  EPA and state agencies should issue policies that clarify that other qualified individuals are empowered to make these waste determinations based on appropriate information supplied by the laboratory scientists.

·        ACS recommends that regulatory interpretations and implementation be established that clearly allow scientists and other qualified personnel to work together to identify and minimize hazardous waste generated in laboratories.  This proposal could provide the basis for solving many of the problems discussed herein.

Treatment of hazardous waste in the laboratory without a permit
Current Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state regulations have been interpreted to require costly permits or burdensome conditions for the treatment of even very small quantities of waste in a laboratory. Allowing laboratories the ability to treat limited quantities on-site would minimize waste and reduce costs. 

·        ACS recommends that legislation, rulemaking, and guidance allow qualified laboratory personnel to treat small quantities of hazardous waste without a permit.

One EPA ID Number Per Campus
EPA requirements have created a situation where hazardous waste generators on the same campus have an identification (ID) number for each city block.  Institutions with many laboratory buildings separated by roads are required to obtain different site ID numbers for different parts of their property. This inhibits centralized hazardous waste management and requires redundant record keeping.

·        ACS recommends that the definition of “on-site” be modified to allow generators with multiple laboratory buildings on contiguous properties to have a single EPA ID number.

Waste Accumulation Times for Efficiency and Pollution Prevention
Unlike most other generators, laboratories generate very small quantities of many types of waste. Multiple shipments of small quantities are expensive. Accumulation of larger waste quantities enables cost-effective pollution prevention.  EPA has set precedents by allowing flexibility for longer accumulation times of 180 to 270 days to achieve specific policy goals.

·        ACS recommends that laboratories be allowed to accumulate hazardous wastes for longer periods in order to allow more efficient waste shipments and cost-effective pollution prevention.

Redundant Regulation of Mixed Waste
Laboratories in academic, medical and pharmaceutical research facilities generate mixed wastes that contain both low-level radioactive and hazardous chemical components.  EPA and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have ended the unnecessary and inefficient dual regulation of most mixed wastes from laboratories. However, common radiation-containing laboratory solvents that could be ignited are still redundantly regulated for both radioactive and flammable components in spite of the fact they could be safely and efficiently managed under a single scheme.

·        ACS proposes that the NRC and EPA avoid the unnecessary and inefficient dual regulation of laboratory mixed waste. Specifically, ACS proposes that NRC and EPA modify their rules to allow disposal of laboratory solvents with negligible levels of radioactivity under a single scheme.