ABSTRACT
Chapter 19 dealt with the nature, production, and environmental behavior of hazardous wastes. Clearly, there have been severe hazardous waste problems in the United States and throughout the world. Since the 1970s, much has been done to reduce and clean up hazardous wastes. Legislation dealing with wastes has been passed, regulations have been put forth and refined, and numerous waste sites have been characterized and treated. Many of the financial resources expended on hazardous wastes have been devoted to litigation in attempts to establish the identities and contributions of various parties to waste problems. This chapter discusses how environmental chemistry, industrial ecology, and green chemistry can be applied to hazardous waste management to develop measures by which chemical wastes can be minimized, recycled, treated, and disposed. In descending order of desirability, hazardous waste management attempts to accomplish the following:
Do not produce it.
If making it cannot be avoided, produce only minimum quantities.
Recycle it.
If it is produced and cannot be recycled, treat it, preferably in a way that makes it nonhazardous.
If it cannot be rendered nonhazardous, dispose of it in a safe manner.
Once it is disposed, monitor it for leaching and other adverse effects.
