Many people are unclear on how to handle hazardous waste, or even what constitutes solid waste, hazardous waste, and hazardous chemicals. On April 29, 2020, the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress reviewed and passed the revised "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste," which came into effect on September 1, 2020. Let's identify these hazardous wastes around us, and how to handle them after identification, and what precautions to take during the process.

　 　01 What is solid waste?

　　Article 124(1) of the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste" defines solid waste as items and substances in solid, semi-solid, and gas states (contained in containers) that are produced during production, life, and other activities and have lost their original use value, or have not lost their use value but have been discarded or abandoned, as well as items and substances legally or administratively regulated as solid waste. Exemptions include those that have undergone harmless processing and meet mandatory national product quality standards, do not endanger public health and ecological safety, or are determined not to be solid waste according to solid waste identification standards and procedures.

　　Industrial solid waste is also generated during enterprise production, such as tailings, gangue, and waste rock from mining enterprises, waste tires and rubber from the transportation and manufacturing industry, waste paper from printing enterprises, and scraps and leather scraps from clothing processing enterprises.

　　National Legal Determination of Solid Waste

　　In addition to defining solid waste in the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste," the state has also issued the "General Rules for the Identification of Solid Waste" (GB34330-2017), which uses a series of strict judgment procedures based on sources, utilization, and disposal processes to determine whether a substance is solid waste. In particular, for some enterprises that use solid waste to produce by-products, if the by-products do not meet product quality standards, do not meet relevant national emission (control) standards or technical specifications for pollutants, and lack a stable and reasonable market demand, resulting in negative value, then the nature of the by-product is still considered solid waste and cannot escape supervision under the name of a product.

　 　02 What is hazardous waste?

　　Article 124(6) of the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste" defines hazardous waste as solid waste with hazardous characteristics that is listed in the national hazardous waste catalog or identified according to the national hazardous waste identification standards and methods. Hazardous waste is a type of solid waste.

　　National Legal Determination of Hazardous Waste

　　According to the "General Rules for the Identification of Hazardous Waste" (GB5085.7-2019), the following situations are mainly considered hazardous waste:

　　1. Any waste type listed in the national hazardous waste catalog is hazardous waste;

　　2. Waste not listed in the national hazardous waste catalog but possessing one or more hazardous characteristics such as corrosiveness, toxicity, flammability, or reactivity, according to national hazardous waste identification standards and methods, is considered hazardous waste;

　　3. Solid waste not listed in the "National Hazardous Waste Catalog" and that cannot be identified according to hazardous waste identification standards, but may have harmful effects on human health or the ecological environment, will be identified by experts organized by the competent environmental authority of the State Council.

　　How to store and manage hazardous waste?

　　Hazardous waste is different from general solid waste and has certain hazards. Therefore, hazardous waste must be subject to key control and strict management. Environmental pollution prevention and control of hazardous waste involves several stages: generation, storage, transportation, utilization, and disposal. It is necessary to adopt the pollution prevention and control principle of "tailoring measures to the waste and classification control" according to its characteristics. According to Article 81 of the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste," the collection and storage of hazardous waste should be classified according to the characteristics of the hazardous waste. Mixing the collection, storage, transportation, and disposal of incompatible hazardous waste that has not undergone safety treatment is prohibited.

　　Hazardous waste is classified into different categories according to its different hazardous characteristics, such as toxicity (including acute toxicity, leaching toxicity, etc.), flammability, corrosiveness, infectivity, and reactivity. Therefore, for different types of hazardous waste, pollution prevention and control requirements suitable for its characteristics must be implemented, and different pollution prevention and control measures must be adopted, that is, the pollution prevention and control principle of "tailoring measures to the waste and classification control" must be adopted. If the same pollution prevention and control measures are adopted for various hazardous wastes with different properties, not only will pollution not be effectively controlled, but it may also expand or aggravate pollution hazards.

　　Enterprises, as the responsible entities for hazardous waste pollution prevention and control, should effectively control environmental risks during the construction, operation, and management stages of hazardous waste storage facilities in accordance with standards such as the "Hazardous Waste Storage Pollution Control Standard" and the "Technical Specifications for the Collection, Storage, and Transportation of Hazardous Waste".

　 　03 What are hazardous chemicals?

　　Article 3 of the "Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals" defines hazardous chemicals as highly toxic chemicals and other chemicals with toxic, corrosive, explosive, combustible, or combustion-supporting properties that pose hazards to human bodies, facilities, and the environment.

　　Every link in the production, storage, use, operation, and transportation of hazardous chemicals cannot be taken lightly, requiring relevant departments responsible for safety supervision and management to fulfill their respective responsibilities.

　　The safety production supervision and management department is responsible for the comprehensive work of hazardous chemical safety supervision and management, organizing the determination, announcement, and adjustment of the hazardous chemical catalog, conducting safety condition reviews of new, reconstructed, and expanded projects for the production and storage of hazardous chemicals (including the use of long-distance pipelines to transport hazardous chemicals), issuing hazardous chemical safety production permits, hazardous chemical safe use permits, and hazardous chemical operation permits, and is responsible for hazardous chemical registration work.

　　Public security organs are responsible for the public safety management of hazardous chemicals, issuing purchase permits for highly toxic chemicals and road transportation permits for highly toxic chemicals, and are responsible for the road traffic safety management of hazardous chemical transport vehicles.

　　Quality supervision, inspection, and quarantine departments are responsible for issuing industrial product production licenses for hazardous chemical and packaging manufacturers, and for supervising product quality according to law, and are responsible for inspecting imported and exported hazardous chemicals and their packaging.

　　Environmental protection authorities are responsible for the supervision and management of the disposal of discarded hazardous chemicals, organizing the identification of environmental hazards and environmental risk assessments of hazardous chemicals, determining hazardous chemicals subject to key environmental management, and are responsible for the registration of hazardous chemical environmental management and new chemical substance environmental management registration; they investigate relevant hazardous chemical environmental pollution accidents and ecological damage incidents according to their responsibilities, and are responsible for emergency environmental monitoring at hazardous chemical accident sites.

　　The transportation authorities are responsible for licensing the road and waterway transportation of hazardous chemicals, as well as the safety management of transport vehicles. They supervise the safety of hazardous chemical waterway transportation and are responsible for the qualification assessment of drivers, crew members, loading and unloading personnel, escorts, declarants, and on-site container inspectors for hazardous chemical road and waterway transport enterprises. The railway authorities are responsible for the safety management of hazardous chemical railway transportation, and for the qualification approval of hazardous chemical railway carriers and shippers, as well as the safety management of their transport vehicles. The civil aviation authorities are responsible for the safety management of hazardous chemical air transportation, air transport enterprises, and their transport vehicles.

　　The health authorities are responsible for the management of the toxicity identification of hazardous chemicals and for organizing and coordinating medical and health rescue work for those injured in hazardous chemical accidents.

　　Based on licenses issued by relevant departments, the Administration for Industry and Commerce issues business licenses to enterprises producing, storing, operating, and transporting hazardous chemicals, and investigates and prosecutes illegal procurement of hazardous chemicals by hazardous chemical businesses.

　　The postal authorities are responsible for investigating and prosecuting the illegal mailing of hazardous chemicals.

　　Disposal and Abandonment of Hazardous Chemicals

　　Hazardous chemicals cannot be arbitrarily abandoned or disposed of. How can the comprehensive supervision of abandoned hazardous chemicals be improved?

　　Hazardous chemicals have dangerous properties such as explosion, flammability, toxicity, corrosiveness, and radioactivity. Relevant procedures must be followed before disposal.

　　From hazardous chemicals → abandoned hazardous chemicals → hazardous waste, there are 2 stages and 4 steps:

　　Stage 1: Hazardous chemicals → Abandoned hazardous chemicals

　　Step 1: For hazardous chemicals intended for disposal, the units producing or storing them should file the disposal plan with the county-level people's government safety production supervision and management department, the industrial and information technology authority, the environmental protection authority, and the public security organs for the record.

　　Legal Basis

　　Article 27 of the "Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals" stipulates that "Units producing or storing hazardous chemicals that change production, cease production, suspend operations, or dissolve should take effective measures to promptly and properly dispose of their hazardous chemical production equipment, storage facilities, and inventory of hazardous chemicals, and must not discard hazardous chemicals; the disposal plan should be filed with the county-level safety supervision department, the industrial and information technology department, the environmental protection department, and the public security organs for the record. The safety production supervision and management department should, together with the environmental protection authority and the public security organs, supervise and inspect the disposal situation. If it is found that the disposal is not carried out in accordance with the regulations, it should order immediate disposal"; Article 6 stipulates that "The safety production supervision and management department is responsible for the comprehensive work of safety supervision and management of hazardous chemicals", and "The environmental protection department is responsible for the supervision and management of the disposal of abandoned hazardous chemicals"; Article 2, paragraph 2, stipulates that "The disposal of abandoned hazardous chemicals shall be carried out in accordance with relevant environmental protection laws, administrative regulations, and national regulations."

　　Step 2: Enterprises should pre-treat hazardous chemicals that are easily explosive, flammable, or emit toxic gases under normal temperature and pressure to stabilize them before storage. Otherwise, they should be stored as easily explosive or flammable dangerous goods.

　　Legal Basis

　　1. Article 6 of the "Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals" stipulates that "The safety supervision department is responsible for the comprehensive work of safety supervision and management of hazardous chemicals... issuing hazardous chemical safety production licenses, hazardous chemical safe use licenses, and hazardous chemical operation licenses, and is responsible for the registration of hazardous chemicals";

　　2. The "Guiding Principles for Safety Evaluation of Hazardous Chemical Operating Units (Trial)" (AnJianGuanGuan ErZi [2003] No. 38) requires enterprises to "have sound safety management (including education and training, fire prevention, fire-starting, fire use, maintenance, and waste disposal) systems";

　　3. Section 4.3 of the "General Rules for Storage of Commonly Used Hazardous Chemicals" (GB 15603-1995) stipulates that "explosives, Class 1 flammable materials, materials that burn when wet, and highly toxic materials shall not be stored in the open air", and Section 6.3 stipulates that "chemicals that can cause combustion, explosion, or chemical reactions, producing toxic gases when exposed to fire, heat, or moisture shall not be stored in the open air or in damp or waterlogged buildings". Sections 6.4-6.9 also have relevant regulations.

　　It should be particularly pointed out that even after hazardous chemicals are abandoned, the physical hazards are not eliminated, and they still belong to hazardous chemicals.

　　Stage 2: Abandoned hazardous chemicals → Hazardous waste

　　Step 3: Units producing or storing abandoned hazardous chemicals, after pre-treating the abandoned hazardous chemicals so that they can be stably stored, shall formulate a hazardous waste management plan and report it to the ecological environment department for the record.

　　Legal Basis

　　1. The "Standard for Pollution Control of Hazardous Waste Storage" (GB18597-2001) defines "hazardous waste storage" as "the storage of hazardous waste before reuse, harmless treatment, or final disposal." "Hazardous waste that is easily explosive, flammable, or emits toxic gases under normal temperature and pressure must be pre-treated to stabilize it before storage; otherwise, it should be stored as easily explosive or flammable dangerous goods."

　　2. Article 78 of the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste" stipulates that "Units that generate hazardous waste shall formulate a hazardous waste management plan in accordance with national regulations; establish a hazardous waste management ledger, truthfully record relevant information, and report relevant data on the types, quantities, flow, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste to the local ecological environment authority through the national hazardous waste information management system." "The hazardous waste management plan shall be filed with the ecological environment authority of the area where the hazardous waste is generated."

　　Step 4: Production and storage units shall properly handle the disposal of abandoned hazardous chemicals in accordance with hazardous waste management requirements. The ecological environment department shall supervise and manage the pollution prevention and control of the disposal of abandoned hazardous chemicals, and the emergency management department shall supervise the safety of the disposal of abandoned hazardous chemicals.

　　Legal Basis

　　Article 6 of the "Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals" stipulates that "The safety production supervision and management department is responsible for the comprehensive work of safety supervision and management of hazardous chemicals", and "The environmental protection department is responsible for the supervision and management of the disposal of abandoned hazardous chemicals."

　　If the enterprise fails to follow the above procedures, it will bear the following legal liabilities.

　　1. For enterprises that fail to properly dispose of abandoned hazardous chemical waste or fail to report the disposal plan to the relevant departments, according to Article 82 of the "Regulations on the Safety Management of Hazardous Chemicals": Units that produce, store, or use hazardous chemicals that change production, cease production, suspend operations, or dissolve, and fail to take effective measures to promptly and properly dispose of their hazardous chemical production equipment, storage facilities, and inventory of hazardous chemicals, or discard hazardous chemicals, shall be ordered to rectify by the safety production supervision and management department, and shall be fined not less than 50,000 yuan and not more than 100,000 yuan; if a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law; units that produce, store, or use hazardous chemicals that change production, cease production, suspend operations, or dissolve, and fail to file the disposal plan for their hazardous chemical production equipment, storage facilities, and inventory of hazardous chemicals with the relevant departments in accordance with these Regulations, shall be ordered to rectify by the relevant departments, and may be fined not more than 10,000 yuan; if they refuse to rectify, they shall be fined not less than 10,000 yuan and not more than 50,000 yuan.

　　2. For companies that improperly store hazardous chemicals, according to Article 80 of the "Regulations on the Safe Management of Hazardous Chemicals": If a unit that produces, stores, or uses hazardous chemicals has any of the following circumstances, the safety production supervision and management department shall order it to rectify the situation and impose a fine of RMB 50,000 to 100,000; if it refuses to rectify, it shall be ordered to suspend production and business operations until its relevant licenses are revoked by the original issuing authority, and the Administration for Industry and Commerce shall order it to change its business scope registration or revoke its business license; if the relevant personnel are found to have committed a crime, they shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law.

　　(1) Failure to inspect reusable packaging and containers for hazardous chemicals before reuse;

　　(2) Failure to set up relevant safety facilities and equipment in the workplace according to the types and hazardous characteristics of the hazardous chemicals produced and stored, or failure to regularly maintain and repair safety facilities and equipment in accordance with national standards, industry standards, or relevant national regulations;

　　(3) Failure to conduct regular safety assessments of its safety production conditions as stipulated in these Regulations;

　　(4) Failure to store hazardous chemicals in designated warehouses, or failure to store highly toxic chemicals and other hazardous chemicals whose storage quantity constitutes a major hazard source separately in designated warehouses;

　　(5) The storage methods, approaches, or quantities of hazardous chemicals do not comply with national standards or relevant national regulations;

　　(6) Hazardous chemical designated warehouses do not meet the requirements of national standards and industry standards;

　　(7) Failure to regularly inspect and test the safety facilities and equipment of hazardous chemical designated warehouses. Failure to store hazardous chemicals in designated warehouses, or failure to store highly toxic chemicals and other hazardous chemicals whose storage quantity constitutes a major hazard source separately in designated warehouses.

　　3. For companies that fail to report hazardous waste management plans to the ecological environment department, according to Article 112 of the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste": If a company fails to formulate a hazardous waste management plan or report relevant hazardous waste information in accordance with national regulations, the ecological environment authority shall order it to rectify the situation and impose a fine, confiscate its illegal gains; in serious cases, with the approval of the people's government with approval authority, it may be ordered to suspend operations or close down.

　　4. For companies that fail to dispose of or improperly dispose of hazardous waste, according to the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste": If a company provides hazardous waste to or entrusts an unlicensed unit or other producer or operator to engage in business activities, the ecological environment authority shall order it to rectify the situation and impose a fine, confiscate its illegal gains; in serious cases, with the approval of the people's government with approval authority, it may be ordered to suspend operations or close down. If a company fails to dispose of its hazardous waste as required and refuses to rectify after being ordered to do so, the ecological environment authority shall organize the disposal, and the disposal costs shall be borne by the hazardous waste generator; if it refuses to bear the disposal costs, it shall be fined one to three times the disposal costs. If it constitutes a violation of public security management, the public security organs shall impose public security management penalties according to law; if it constitutes a crime, it shall be investigated for criminal responsibility according to law; if it causes personal injury or property damage, it shall bear civil liability according to law.