Disposal of Hazardous Wastes

Hazardous wastes pose a potential hazard to the health of humans or other living organisms because the wastes are lethal, nondegradable, and persistent in nature, can be biologically magnified or otherwise cause detrimental cumulative effects. The US Environmental Protection Agency characterizes a waste as hazardous if it possesses any one of the following four characteristics: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity. The US Environmental Protection Agency has identified 129 toxic hazardous wastes which have become known as "priority pollutants". Wise and Fahrenthold in a study of petrochemical processes identified these hazardous "priority pollutants" in many petrochemical process wastewaters. There are many alternative treatment processes available which may be classified as physical, chemical, or biological processes. The costs associated with these treatment alternatives varies widely, and the costs of all options must be compared before selecting a treatment process. Incineration has proved to be a viable method of destroying organic wastes without posing a threat to the environment.