Toxic Waste Identification

• A variety of industries, including the chemical, steel and automobile, use and create hazardous materials every day. The general public is also responsible for toxic waste, which includes pesticides, unused paints, motor oil and transmission fluid. Anything that is hazardous to humans or animals, is toxic or carcinogenic, is ignitable with a flash point of less than 60 degrees, is corrosive, explosive or highly reactive falls into the category of toxic waste and has to be identified before it can be disposed.
  
  

Disposal

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is chiefly responsible for the collection and disposal of toxic waste. Businesses and individual citizens can bring their hazardous and toxic waste to the EPA, which will categorize and separate the wastes and ensure that they don't leak or accidentally enter the environment. Some of the more common methods of disposal include: chemical treatment, which will render many toxic materials harmless; storage in barrels and other secure containers, often used for materials like nuclear waste; and incineration, for those toxic wastes that can be destroyed through extreme heat.
  
  

Superfund Sites

• Between 1950 and 1975, about five billion tons of toxic waste were dumped. The EPA then began enforcing toxic waste disposal more stringently. Superfund sites are illegal dumps on land, ponds, lakes and streams that have been contaminated by toxic waste and are on a list to be cleaned up. The chief goal of these superfund sites is to reverse as much of the damage to the environment as possible, particularly preserving the ground water in the area. Thus, the EPA is concerned with properly policing and detoxifying these sites.