Is my waste a hazardous waste regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA)?" This is one of the most common and basic RCRA questions and is the key to the
RCRA hazardous waste program. If something is not a hazardous waste, it is not regulated under
RCRA. Proper identification of a hazardous waste can be a difficult and confusing task, as the
RCRA regulations establish a complex definition of the term "hazardous waste." To help make
sense of what is and is not a hazardous waste, this module presents the steps involved in the
process of identifying, or "characterizing," a hazardous waste.
While introducing the entire hazardous waste identification process, this module will focus on
the final steps, the definition of a hazardous waste. The other steps in the process, including the
definition of solid waste and the solid and hazardous waste exclusions will be discussed in other
modules.
After reading this module, you will be able to explain the hazardous waste identification process
and the definition of hazardous waste, and be familiar with the following concepts:
• hazardous waste listings
• hazardous waste characteristics
• the "mixture" and "derived-from" rules
• the "contained-in" policy
• the Hazardous Waste Identification Rules (HWIR).