This guidance document was developed to assist you in properly identifying all wastes that you generate, treat, store or send off-site for recycling, energy recovery or disposal. Determine whether the material in question is a solid waste.
Solid waste can be a solid, liquid, or contained gas.
Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a solid waste is any material that you will no longer be using for its originally intended purpose or a material that must be reclaimed before reuse. In order for any material to be a hazardous waste, it must first be a solid waste. Not all RCRA solid wastes are considered hazardous wastes. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency exempted or excluded certain wastes, such as household wastes or used oil destined for recycling, from the hazardous waste definition and regulation. Don't proceed to Step 3, which is evaluating the actual chemical or physical hazard a waste poses, until you've determined the waste is not somehow excluded from hazardous waste regulation.