Schools produce wastes in the course of managing people, buildings, laboratories, and art departments, and maintaining automotive/bus fleets. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Subtitle C, hazardous waste rules were written to protect human health and the environment from improper disposal of hazardous waste.

A hazardous material or product is not considered a hazardous waste until it has exhausted its intended use, it has expired, the original packaging has been damaged, and/or the contents released. In the event the material or product is still usable, it is not a waste until so declared.

The by-products created from a number of waste-generating processes require the waste to be evaluated to determine if it is hazardous. Once considered hazardous, waste must be containerized, labeled, stored, and prepared for disposal. For safety and liability reasons, all unneeded wastes should be removed from processing sites, storage areas, and flammable storage cabinets as soon as possible.

“Common School Wastes” offers practical advice on how to manage and dispose of the most frequently generated wastes at K-12 schools and community colleges. The remainder of this web page describes the EPA rules regarding hazardous waste management and the role of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) as the authorized state regulator of RCRA, an authority granted by the EPA in 1980.

Moreover, the most prominent hazardous waste management requirements are described, such as waste evaluation, generator size determination, EPA Identification Number, accumulation time limits, containers, labels, storage, and hazardous waste disposal methods and resources.