Waste Management

EPA researchers develop methods for managing solid waste and contaminated water resulting from natural and human-made disasters, including waste minimization, treatment, storage and disposal. Researchers also develop tools and information to support waste management decisions.

Natural disasters are occurring with increasing frequency, generating volumes of waste and debris that are difficult for states, local governments, tribes and territories to manage. Incidents involving extremely dangerous chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) contaminants would create significant additional challenges in waste management.

**Waste generated as part of a remediation operation**

Waste management challenges include:

minimizing the amount of waste generated during cleanup
segregating waste types
waste treatment options
temporary waste storage & staging
packaging and transporting waste
disposing of waste and debris

Throughout the incident response and clean up, waste must be characterized to reduce human exposure to contamination and to determine how and where to ship, treat and/or dispose of contaminated materials.

Response to a large-scale incident is complex because activities are interrelated. For example, decontamination approach decisions have an impact on the timeline of cleanup as well as on the cost and overall amount of waste generated. Decision-makers must be aware of the trade-offs involved in their decisions to optimize the response.

For CBRN incidents these complexities are compounded by:

Lack of a federal regulations for managing biologically-contaminated waste
Limited disposal capacity for radiologically-contaminated waste
Lack of experience of decision-makers and waste management facilities in handling these wastes
Hesitancy from some disposal facilities to accept these wastes

Research Topics

Available Tools

Other Resources

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EPA Tools Help Local Decision-Makers Deal with Waste Resulting from Major Natural Disasters