Cradle-to-Grave Confusion

“The cradle-to-grave responsibility decreed by the EPA means that the generator owns, and will continue to own, the waste they consign for transport and disposal. Due to Superfund, this applies to hazardous waste as well as all solid waste that ends up in the dumpster out back. 

As reported on “60 Minutes” in October 1997, the Keystone Landfill outside Gettysburg, PA became a SuperFund site after local industries were discovered to have deposited hazardous waste there.  As a result of this action, several hundred local businesses received notice that they were now a “Potentially Responsible Party” (PRP). One local restaurant owner received a bill of $75,000 for their “pro-rated” portion of the remediation cost.  The upshot of the whole issue –  “guilty unless able to prove innocence”.

While RCRA has set less-stringent standards for special waste streams, landfills and incinerator facilities take a different view. They are unwilling to accept items such as spray booth/prep deck filters and still bottoms at their facilities unless the generator can produce TCLP test results to prove the waste items have been found non-hazardous by laboratory analysis.

Should the EPA discover what they deem to be hazardous waste in a landfill, they will pro-rate fines to all PRP’s involved, whether or not they were registered as hazardous waste generators, if they contributed to that particular landfill...unless a generator can produce TCLP test certificates.

Oddly enough, EPA is the source of both the RCRA rulings and the landfill/incinerator inspections - with the generator caught in the middle. The quickest way to cut through the confusion and avoid EPA fines is to subject samples of your waste stream products to TCLP testing and maintain disposal records in your shop. This will be the only proof you can offer to inspecting authorities in a court of law.

Copyright © Tara L. Munro. All Rights Reserved.