August 10, 2021
The purpose of this memorandum is to communicate existing options under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations for hazardous waste generators and permitted hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) to address the temporary backlog of containerized hazardous waste destined for incineration.
Background
In early June 2021, EPA became aware that some commercial hazardous waste incinerators were informing their customers (hazardous waste generators) that they would no longer accept containerized hazardous waste designated for incineration, due to a backlog at their facilities. This presents a problem for hazardous waste generators because they are only allowed to accumulate hazardous waste on-site for a maximum of 90 days for large quantity generators (LQGs) or 180 days (or 270 days if the waste must be transported a distance of 200 miles or more) for small quantity generators (SQGs).1 Because many commercial incinerators are currently not accepting containerized hazardous waste that must be incinerated to meet the land disposal restriction treatment standards, some hazardous waste generators are finding it difficult to locate any permitted TSDFs to which they may send their hazardous waste within the regulatory time frames.
