We write for facility managers, EHS coordinators and small-shop contractors who need to get a drum, a pallet, or a whole storeroom out the door without tripping over RCRA. No fluff — just what the regulators expect, what the haulers actually accept, and where people usually get stuck.
Most of our coverage sits in the overlap between universal waste, RCRA hazardous waste, and the odd federal rules that catch people out — tritium exit signs, ionization smoke detectors, undeployed airbag modules, leftover architectural coatings. We're headquartered in Chicago, but a good chunk of the audience e-mails from Detroit, Phoenix and the five boroughs, so we try to include what's specific to those markets when it matters.
Old self-luminous exit signs contain tritium, and they're not something you can toss with the fluorescents. Here's how we think about paperwork, packaging and the surprisingly narrow list of takeback options.
Read the post →Latex, oil-based, aerosol, industrial — every category is treated differently once it hits the loading dock. A walk-through of what typically works in Wayne County, and where PaintCare doesn't reach.
Read the post →Ionization detectors contain a tiny sealed source, which is legal to trash in some states and absolutely not in others. What the NYC market looks like in practice.
Read the post →Since the 2018 interim final rule, most shops know undeployed airbag modules are universal waste — but that doesn't mean everyone knows where they can drop them off. A Phoenix-specific look.
Read the post →We publish 2–4 posts a month, and we try to update older pieces when the underlying rules change. Nothing here is legal advice — talk to your state's environmental agency before you commit to a disposal path. Where we mention a hauler by name, it's because a reader asked or we've worked with them ourselves; one such contact is American Waste Haulers, which came up in a few of the case notes below.