Mixtures of Used Oil & Hazardous Waste

The RCRA regulations do not treat used oil as hazardous waste. However, once used oil is mixed with other contaminants, it may be required to be treated as hazardous waste.

As we discussed earlier in the course, hazardous waste falls into the following two groups:

• "Listed" hazardous waste (which refers to solid wastes that meet specific RCRA criteria to be listed as hazardous waste, and that are always considered to be hazardous when generated)
• "Characteristic" hazardous waste (which refers to solid waste that exhibits one or more of the following characteristics: ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity)

Under the RCRA regulations, waste in either of these groups must be managed as hazardous waste. This means that when used oil is mixed with other waste, it may qualify as hazardous waste if it includes hazardous contaminants that exceed allowable levels. In that case, used oil is then considered to be either "listed hazardous waste" or "characteristic hazardous waste."

To learn more about RCRA visit our RCRA Hazardous Waste Safety Online Training web page.