RCRA - STORAGE/DISPOSAL > Overview

As you probably know, your campus power plant produces a variety of non-combustion and combustion waste streams that, depending on their composition, are either non-hazardous or hazardous. Examples of common waste streams at a power generating facility may include: office-related wastes (e.g., paper, plastics, etc.), used oils, spent solvents, spent aerosol cans, spent fluorescent light bulbs, contact and non-contact cooling water, analytical laboratory wastes, metal cleaning wastes from boiler clean outs, cooling tower sludge, and bottom ash and fly ash from the burning of fossil fuels in boilers.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) required that EPA establish requirements for minimizing/reducing the volume and toxicity of waste generated by large quantity generators of hazardous waste. If you know or think that your campus power plant is a large quantity generator of hazardous waste (a large quantity generator is a generator that generates greater than 1,000 kg of hazardous waste in a calendar month), then continue on in this EVC and learn about requirements for waste minimization planning, to which recycling practices may play an important role. Many states also have their own, sometimes more stringent, regulations.