BEM 4351 Unit 5 Social Sciences Essay Research Paper

Hazardous Waste Management
Author’s Name
The Institutional Affiliation
Course Number and Name
Instructor Name
Assignment Due Date
Hazardous Waste Management
Waste is determined as an unwanted or unusable substance obtained as a result of a specific process. In correspondence, the following essay is designed to demonstrate the characteristics, types, and manifest systems of hazardous waste. Additionally, the essay has also discussed features of the landfill that are harmful to the environment.
Waste with potential threats to public health is determined as hazardous waste. Besides, such wastes are harmful to the environment as well. There are four critical traits based on which hazardous wastes are categorized. These traits are ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and toxicity (EPA, 2009). In detail, ignitability denotes such wastes that are flammable. Further, there are three types of ignitable forms of waste: liquid with low flash temperature, solids that combust spontaneously, oxidizers, and compressed gases. Secondly, corrosivity indicates rusting and decomposing capabilities. Correspondingly, substances such as hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid tend to eat through the container and cause leakage. Thirdly, the material that has explosive properties are determined as reactive. Fourthly, the toxic wastes material is poisonous and crucially harmful to the environment—immediate firsthand danger to the environment and the health. Altogether, hazardous wastes are ignited, corrosive, reactive, and toxic based on their properties.
Based on the identified categories, each waste is categorized into four lists. The list is determined as F, K, P, and U, depending on the typical characteristics of the waste (EPA, 2009). The F-list identifies wastes that are generated from the standard manufacturing processes. As the industrial processes generate such wastes, it can occur in different sectors. For example, spent solvent waste, electroplating wastes, chlorinated hydrocarbon production, wood preservation wastes, etc. Second is the K list, which identifies the wastes from a specific source. Thus, the K-list wastes are determined as source-specific and are further categorized into 13 types (EPA, 2009). For instance, pesticides manufacturing waste, petroleum refining, explosive manufacturing, etc. eventually, the P and U lists denote similar attributes of hazardous waste. These lists designate hazardous waste as the commercial formulation of unused chemicals. The categorization is dependent on three criteria; the presence of chemicals from the chemical list of P and U list, a waste chemical must be unused, and waste chemical must be a commercial product.
The manifest system is designed to track t...