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This report covers the commercial hazardous waste industry in the United States, Western Europe and Japan. The U.S. section covers the sources and composition of hazardous wastes; recycling, treatment and disposal methods; and domestic commercial off-site hazardous waste recycling, treatment and disposal facilities. Hazardous waste trade is also discussed. The Western European and Japanese sections provide an overview of the legal framework that defines and regulates hazardous waste; some information on the quantities of various hazardous waste streams; recycling, treatment and disposal volumes; commercial off-site hazardous waste recycling, treatment and disposal facilities; and hazardous waste trade.
Although the term hazardous waste is a uniquely U.S. legal term, the United States, the countries of Western Europe, and Japan all have special regulations for wastes that are corrosive, ignitable, toxic or reactive, requiring these wastes to be handled differently from household waste (known as solid waste in the United States). In addition, there are hazardous waste regulations for the wastes produced by specific industrial processes. This report attempts to simplify some of the legal aspects, particularly with regard to legal terminology in the definition of a hazardous waste. In general, all wastes that are primarily industrial in origin and have corrosive, ignitable, toxic or reactive characteristics or are a regulated waste because of a specific industrial process are referred to as hazardous waste in this report. The following table summarizes the major environmental laws that regulate hazardous waste and hazardous waste trade in the United States, the European Union and Japan:
Major Hazardous Waste Regulations in the United States
European Union and Japan
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| United States | European Union | Japan |
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| Resource Conservation and Recovery Act | EC Directive 78/319:Defines Toxic and Dangerous Wastes and Addresses Prevention, Treatment and Recovery | Waste Disposal and Public Cleaning Law |
| Toxic Substances Control Act | EC Directive 93/259: Description of Hazardous Waste Treatment Hierarchy and Proximity Rule | Law Concerning the Utilization of Recycled Resources |
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In the United States, Western Europe and Japan the vast majority of hazardous waste is recycled, treated or disposed of on the property where it was created. This involves a relatively small number of very large manufacturing sites. The majority of U.S. manufacturing firms send all of their hazardous waste to commercial off-site hazardous waste recycling, treatment and disposal (commercial HWRTD) facilities. In the United States, commercial HWRTD represents about 4-5% of the total hazardous waste recycling, treatment and disposal market and is valued in excess of $2.5 billion.
The U.S. primary metals industry is the largest industrial user of commercial HWRTD. In 1995, this industry (Standard Industrial Classification 33) generated 30.1% of hazardous wastes that were recycled, consumed for energy recovery, treated or disposed of in off-site facilities (excluding transfers to publicly owned water treatment works), according to the U.S. EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data. The next-largest industrial user of commercial HWRTD was the chemical and allied products industry (Standard Industrial Classification 28), generating 24.7% of hazardous wastes on the same basis.
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