Hazardous waste is any waste with properties that make it dangerous or are capable of having a harmful impact on human or environmental health. It can be generated from a vast variety of sources, including pharmaceutical waste.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) gets more specific in defining hazardous waste through four lists: P, U, K, and F. When it comes to hazardous pharmaceutical waste the P and U lists are relevant and the ones you want to pay the most attention to. Drugs such as warfarin, nicotine, lindane, and cyclophosphamide. Additionally, many drugs meet the definition of the different characteristic wastes (ignitability, corrosivity, toxicity, and reactivity) which all must be managed as hazardous waste.

Waste segregation at source is the process of separating different wastes (e.g. pills, powders, liquids, etc.), by their final method of disposal, at the time they expire or can no longer be used (e.g. patient discharge). This step is vital in ensuring your program is fully in compliance with all state and federal laws.

If you need assistance with this portion of the process, Hazardous Waste Experts would be happy to assist with how each different waste needs to be segregated and disposed of by any and all regulations in your area.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest growing and most profitable industries in the United States. Many large pharmaceutical companies also produce products for animals. A 2009 NRDC study estimated that around 27.8 million pounds of antibiotics, alone, were sold in the United States throughout 2007. Without regulations advocating good disposal practices, these contaminants will make their way into the global aquatic environment and cause issues for humans, as well.

The Land Disposal Restrictions (LDR) program mandates that certain measures be taken before any hazardous waste is disposed of on land. The provisions in this program focus on eliminating the possibility of polluting groundwater by proper treatment of hazardous toxic constituents in waste before land disposal. The process of treatment might include:

• Incineration (destroys organic hazardous compounds)
• Stabilization or immobilization (which binds toxic metals to the mass of the waste itself, lessening the likeliness of leaching)

From the minute hazardous waste is generated onward, it’s subject to land disposal restrictions. If a generator produces more than 220 pounds (or 2.2 pounds of acute hazardous waste) of hazardous materials in a month’s time, they must identify the type and nature of the waste. They also must determine the applicable course of treatment prior to land disposal.

Generators producing less than these amounts of acute hazardous or hazardous waste are exempt from LDR requirements, as are waste pesticides and container residues which are disposed of by farmers on their own land, and any newly-listed wastes which the EPA has yet to make a determination on.

If protecting the environment and human health isn’t enough to convince you to take the extra step towards proper disposal, consider the following:

During the 2014 Fiscal Year, the EPA took the following actions:

• $163 million in combined federal administrative, civil judicial penalties, and criminal fines
• $16 million in court-ordered environmental projects resulting from criminal prosecutions
• $453.7 million in commitments from responsible parties to clean up Superfund sites
• 155 combined years of prison time for sentenced defendants