Hazardous waste

Hazardous waste is discarded material that can harm human health or the environment because of properties such as toxicity, corrosivity, ignitability, or reactivity.

Toxicity: The capacity of a substance to cause harmful effects in living organisms. Toxicity makes some discarded materials hazardous even at low exposure levels.
Hazardous waste treatment: Processes that reduce hazardous waste's toxicity, mobility, or volume before disposal or recovery. Treatment can make a waste safer or easier to manage.
Love Canal: A neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, built near a buried chemical-waste dump. The contamination crisis drew national attention to abandoned hazardous waste.
Groundwater contamination: The presence of harmful substances in water held beneath Earth's surface. Hazardous waste can release pollutants that migrate into drinking-water sources.
Radioactive waste: Waste containing radioactive material that emits ionizing radiation. Radioactivity is a distinct hazard basis, with specialized controls beyond ordinary chemical hazards.
Corrosive substance: A material that chemically damages living tissue or corrodes metals. Corrosive wastes can injure people and damage storage or transport equipment.
Hazardous waste incineration: The controlled high-temperature destruction of hazardous waste in a specialized combustion facility. Incineration destroys many organic contaminants but requires control of emissions and residues.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act: A 1976 United States law governing solid-waste management and hazardous waste from generation to disposal. It established a federal framework for tracking and controlling hazardous waste.
Environmental justice: The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in environmental decisions and protections. Hazardous waste facilities and legacy sites can impose unequal burdens on communities.
Municipal solid waste: Everyday discarded material collected from households and similar sources. Most municipal waste is not classified as hazardous, though hazardous items can enter it.

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