Thursday, March 19, 2020

Waste, hazardous waste and Non waste: what are the differences?


In the common imagination, waste is imagined as a Unit com, to be disposed of by the most appropriate tools and measures. In fact, if you pause for a moment to think, even to non-professionals of the trade it will become clear that there are different differences between the wastes itself. And it is precisely this diversity that allows us to classify them according to specific rules and to dispose of them in the most suitable way.

Waste

A waste is any substance or object which the holder discards or has the intention or obligation to discard. The Ministry of the Environment classifies waste into two main categories:

1.      Urban waste
2.      Special waste

The first ones correspond to domestic waste, to waste that lies on public roads and, finally, to vegetable experts from public or private areas. Special waste, on the other hand, is all that produced as a result of commercial and industrial activities, vehicles to be scrapped, medical waste, obsolete or deteriorated machinery and, finally, the sludge produced by water purification.


Both municipal and special waste are in turn divided into hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste. As the same definition suggests, non-hazardous waste is "harmless", insofar as it does not contain substances that are potentially harmful to man and the environment (or contain in low quantities). On the contrary, according to their own terminology, hazardous waste is waste that can have a negative and sometimes catastrophic impact on the ecosystem, also affecting human health.
When it is established that a particular commodity, substance or product meets the definition of waste, it is mandatory:

Record the quantity produced in the waste register within a maximum of 10 days
Dispose of the waste for 3 to 12 months (in the latter case only if the quantity is less than 30 cubic meters, including a maximum of 10 of hazardous waste).

And now that we understand what it is, let's get more specific, by examining a particular sub-category of waste, that is, hazardous waste.

Hazardous waste

Both municipal and special waste exist hazardous waste. In the first case it is, for example, alkaline batteries or expired medicines, which contain so-called "dangerous" substances; in the second, waste deriving from production activities, from medical and veterinary research to oil refining or tanning and textile production.

Asian Waste Code. Consisting of 6 digits, of which the first pair defines the activity of origin, the second identifies the single process of the generating activity and the third identifies the single type of waste, the code is the main tool for classifying waste. In other words, the universal language to standardize waste and, therefore, to be able to manage it correctly.


Waste in IDMG (International Maritime Dangerous Goods)

The Indian Agreement for the Transport of Dangerous Goods (IDMG) is a Asian document signed in 1968 between all the UN countries, the aim of which is to standardize the safety standards for the transport of dangerous goods and substances by road. Therefore, IDMG waste is all waste (hazardous and non-hazardous) which, due to its characteristics, is classified as dangerous for transport purposes according to Asian regulations.

The legal representative of the company whose business involves transport of dangerous goods by road, including IDMG assailable waste, or packaging, loading, filling or unloading operations connected with such transport, is required, except in special cases, to appoint a safety consultant (or more), who, among the various functions, has the task of advising and verifying that all the procedures conning the transport and loading and unloading operations of dangerous goods are carried out in full compliance with current legislation . When they are offered to transport dangerous goods that must be disposed of, if they are also classified as hazardous waste, it will be necessary to integrate the labeling required by the IDMG the hazardous waste label and non-hazardous. In the case of non-hazardous waste, it will be necessary to integrate the IDMG labeling. It is important to remember that in the case Hazardous Waste Management Authorization for transport purposes, it will also be mandatory to comply with all requests regarding the correct packaging.

As we have seen, the wastes are not all the same and those classified according to the non-hazardous can still fall into the category of IDMG waste. The important thing, as always, is that the personnel working in the supply chain receive adequate training to best perform their task.

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