RCRA exclusions and waste routes Wastes that fall outside hazardous waste rules, and where they go.

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Based on 40 CFR Part 261 and EPA guidance
Nothing is stored

Pick a waste or type one, and its RCRA codes show here.

Materials excluded from hazardous waste rules, and the routes a waste can take for treatment or disposal.

Which RCRA exclusions apply before I choose a waste code?

First decide whether the material is solid waste under 261.2 and whether an exclusion applies. “Solid waste” can include liquids and gases. A recycling exclusion works only if you meet all its conditions.

Waste with no listing and no hazardous characteristic has no federal hazardous waste code.

Household waste is excluded under 261.4(b)(1). It must come from individuals on household premises and mostly hold materials that consumers normally throw away at home. A contractor working at a home doesn't automatically meet those tests.

State rules can reach more waste, add conditions or reject a federal exclusion. Check the state where the waste is generated and the state that receives it.

Hazardous batteries, lamps, aerosol cans, mercury-containing equipment and qualifying pesticides can follow universal-waste rules. Federal universal-waste shipments need no hazardous waste manifest, but large quantity handlers keep shipment records.

Universal waste can be kept for 1 year, or longer only to build up enough for proper recovery, treatment or disposal. The handler must prove why storage beyond 1 year qualifies. Once 5,000 kg has built up at any time, large quantity status lasts to the end of that calendar year.

Recycled used oil and healthcare pharmaceuticals have their own shipping rules.

When can a small RCRA generator ship without a manifest?

A very small quantity generator (VSQG) makes no more than these amounts in a calendar month.

Waste	Monthly limit	Accumulation limit
Nonacute hazardous waste	100 kg	Below 1,000 kg
Acute hazardous waste	1 kg	No more than 1 kg
Acute hazardous waste spill cleanup residue	100 kg	No more than 100 kg

Under 262.14, determine the waste’s status and send it only to a destination allowed by 262.14(a)(5). An ordinary shipment that meets these conditions needs no federal hazardous waste manifest. The receiving facility's rules and state rules still apply.

A one-time cleanout isn't automatically exempt. Where the state has adopted Part 262 Subpart L, a VSQG or small quantity generator can keep its category through 1 planned or unplanned episodic event per calendar year.

Tell the regulator 30 days before a planned event, or within 72 hours of an unplanned one. Get an EPA ID number, mark containers or tanks, and meet the storage and emergency conditions.

Finish within 60 days and keep records for 3 years. Ship episodic hazardous waste on a manifest to a designated facility. A second event needs an approved petition and must be the opposite type.

When is an RCRA hazardous waste container empty?

For nonacute hazardous waste, remove everything normal methods can remove. What is left must meet one of these limits under 261.7.

Measure	Maximum residue
Depth	1 inch
Weight, containers up to 119 gallons	3% of capacity
Weight, containers over 119 gallons	0.3% of capacity

A compressed-gas container is empty when its pressure nears atmospheric pressure.

For acute F- or P-listed waste, triple rinse with a solvent that removes the waste, use an equivalent method you can show works, or remove the liner that kept the waste from touching the container.

Decide the waste status of the rinsate separately. Healthcare pharmaceutical containers follow 266.507 where Subpart P applies, including that section’s exceptions that point back to 261.7.

Does mixing or treating waste remove an RCRA listed waste code?

Mixing listed hazardous waste with solid waste generally keeps the listing. So do residues from treating, storing or disposing of it. These are the mixture and derived-from rules in 261.3.

A low test result doesn't cancel a listing. Use the specific exception or an approved delisting if one applies. 261.3 has separate wastewater-mixture and other exceptions.

Under 261.3(g), a waste listed only for ignitability, corrosivity or reactivity stops being hazardous under that listing once no hazardous characteristic remains. Any other listing still controls, and Part 268 land disposal restrictions can continue.

Recycling exclusion	Conditions
Coke by-product waste, 261.4(a)(10)	Covers K060, K087, K141–K145, K147 and K148, and coke by-product process waste hazardous only for toxicity. Recycle to coke ovens or tar recovery as feedstock, or mix with coal tar before sale or refining. No land disposal is allowed between generation and recycling.
K061 splash-condenser dross, 261.4(a)(11)	Only nonwastewater dross from high-temperature metals recovery qualifies. Any shipment goes in drums, and the dross must not be land disposed before recovery.
Refinery oil-bearing material, 261.4(a)(12)(i)	Return SIC 2911 refinery-generated oil-bearing sludge, by-product or spent material to petroleum refining without prior land placement or speculative accumulation. For thermal cracking, the coke must have no hazardous characteristic.

Other route	Conditions
Wastewater, 261.4(a)(2)	Only an actual point-source discharge regulated under Clean Water Act section 402 is excluded. Collected or stored wastewater before discharge, and treatment sludge, are outside this exclusion.
Sewered mixtures, 261.4(a)(1)	A mixture passing through a sewer to a publicly owned treatment works can qualify, subject to pretreatment limits and the pharmaceutical sewering ban.
Precious metal recovery, 261.6(a)(2)(iii) and Part 266 Subpart F	The waste must be reclaimed for economically significant precious metal content. It remains regulated, and the route doesn't make waste sent for disposal nonhazardous.

The pre-listing leachate exclusion in 261.4(b)(15) applies to landfill leachate or gas condensate from waste disposed of before the listing took effect. It must have no hazardous characteristic, come from no other listed waste, and have a discharge regulated under Clean Water Act section 307(b) or 402.

After the code’s surface-impoundment cutoff, holding the leachate in an impoundment before discharge ends the exclusion. The exception is temporary emergency storage in a double-lined impoundment, followed by compliant management. The code pages give the dates.

Where do RCRA waste codes go on a hazardous waste manifest?

If a shipment needs a hazardous waste manifest, enter representative federal codes and non-redundant state codes for each waste stream in Item 13. The paper form has 6 code boxes.

A state-only hazardous shipment can need e-Manifest even when the waste isn't federally hazardous.

Item 9b takes the DOT shipping description. You may also need a separate land disposal restrictions notice.

To fill one in, go to Prepare the hazardous waste manifest or EPA e-Manifest.