Hazardous Waste treatment is any physical or chemical process applied to a waste stream prior to disposal. The process may render the waste non-hazardous, allow the waste to be recycled, reduce the volume of waste to be disposed, or may be required prior to air or water discharge of the waste. Some very simple processes (i.e. silver recovery from photographic waste streams) have been completely exempted from these requirements. Some processes that do require notification include: pH adjustment, phase separation by filtration, centrifugation or gravity setting, drying to remove water, distillation, and many others. If you do anything to a waste stream after it has been generated and do not know if that constitutes treatment, contact Environmental Health for a consultation.
