Responsibility for Determination

The generator holds the responsibility for determining whether their waste is a hazardous waste. Two methods are available to a generator for classifying a waste: analytical testing of the waste and the generator’s own knowledge of the materials and processes used to generate or produce the waste.

The definition of a generator, in 22 CCR section 66260.10, is “Any person, by site, whose act or process produces hazardous waste identified or listed in chapter 11 of this division or whose act first causes a hazardous waste to become subject to regulation.” 

If you are a waste generator and you make a mistake in the classification process, you are subject to enforcement action, particularly if a hazardous waste is misclassified and managed as non-hazardous¹.

References

¹22 CCR section 66260.200