Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) is any product labeled toxic, poisonous, combustible, corrosive, irritant, or flammable. Some examples include antifreeze, batteries, cleaning supplies, unused non-controlled pharmaceuticals, fluorescent light bulbs, TVs, computers, and cell phones.
These wastes include unused paint thinners (flammable) oven cleaners (caustics) or bleach (oxidizers), and they can affect a consumer's health and contaminate the soil, ground water and surface waters.
What is a Hazardous Waste? Hazardous waste is a waste with properties that make it potentially dangerous or harmful to human health or the environment. The universe of hazardous wastes is large and diverse. Hazardous wastes can be liquids, solids, or contained gases.
Read the Label!
Look for the words Danger, Warning or Caution on the product label. Danger is the most hazardous product. Warning or Caution are less hazardous products. Products that don't have any of these words on the label are least hazardous.
Kitchen: Ammonia, air freshener, furniture polish, lighter fluid, metal polish, oven cleaner, batteries, light bulbs and lead. Bathroom: Medications, aerosol sprays, corrosive chemicals, disinfectants, drain cleaner, tub and tile cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, window cleaner, and lead.
Products, such as paints, cleaners, oils, batteries, and pesticides can contain hazardous ingredients and require special care when you dispose of them.
Cleaning products like bleach, oven sprays, liquid laundry capsules and toilet cleaners are chemicals. So are paints, glues, oils, pesticides and medicines. The liquid that is used for electric cigarettes is highly toxic to children and pets. They have an attractive smell so should be treated and stored as a chemical.
Domestic wastes include food waste, paper, glass, metals, plastics, textiles, etc. A large part of domestic wastes consists of plant and animal waste such as vegetables, fruit peel, bone and meat waste, and chicken and fish waste, which are considered as wet wastes.
Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) includes any household product labeled "caution," "toxic," "danger," "hazard," "warning," "poisonous," "reactive," "corrosive," or "flammable." Many of these products can be purchased in stores or online and are commonly used in our homes, garages, lawns, and gardens.
Non-medicated products: use up, donate or place in trash. Reuse the container, and check if your brand offers a take back for recycling program for the container/packaging.
Determine if the waste exhibits the characteristics of ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, and/or toxicity, using laboratory analysis or generator knowledge.
What is Non-hazardous waste? Non-hazardous waste, as the name implies, is not dangerous but harms the environment. It must be disposed of appropriately to comply with the rules. It includes household waste, such as food and bathroom waste, and corporate waste, such as waste from factories and farms.
Examples include aerosol cans, such as hair spray or spray paint. Product is corrosive and will burn skin, eyes, throat, or stomach. Examples include oven cleaner and toilet bowl cleaner. Product is flammable and will catch fire easily if it is near heat, flames or sparks.
Examples include fireworks, flammable household liquids, corrosive oven or drain cleaners, flammable gas or liquid lighter refills, camping stove cylinders, matches, ammunition, bleach, aerosols, etc.
"Household hazardous waste" means hazardous waste generated by households that is ignitable, toxic, reactive, corrosive, or otherwise poses a threat to human health or the environment (as defined in 329 IAC 8-2-6).
EPA's regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations define four hazardous waste characteristic properties: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity (see 40 CFR 261.21-261.24). This document presents the regulations developed that list wastes as hazardous in §§ 261.31 through 261.33.
Therefore, their definition closely aligns with these agencies to reduce confusion. According to OSHA, hazardous waste is any agent that can cause bodily or environmental harm. This includes biological agents and corrosive chemicals, as well as machines, tools, and equipment common to industrial and construction sites.