5. Question: What is the difference between hazardous chemicals and hazardous waste?

This post was last edited by Shutong on January 7, 2022, at 08:38. The concepts and classifications of hazardous chemicals include: GB 20576–GB 20599, GB 20601, GB 2060, and GB 12268. Only substances falling under these standards can be considered hazardous chemicals. The concepts and classifications of hazardous waste include: GB 5085.1 – Criteria for identifying hazardous waste: Corrosivity test; GB 5085.2 – Criteria for identifying hazardous waste: Preliminary screening for acute toxicity; GB 5085.3 – Criteria for identifying hazardous waste: Leachate toxicity test; GB 5085.4 – Criteria for identifying hazardous waste: Flammability test; GB 5085.5 – Criteria for identifying hazardous waste: Reactivity test; GB 5085.6 – Criteria for identifying hazardous waste: Detection of toxic substances; GB 34330 – General criteria for identifying solid waste; HJ 298 – Technical specifications for identifying hazardous waste; the “List of Hazardous Wastes” (Order No. 39 issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection)

Regarding abandoned hazardous chemicals, first, the scope of abandoned hazardous chemicals subject to environmental management as hazardous waste has been further clarified. Not all hazardous chemicals listed in the “Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals” possess environmental hazards. Waste hazardous chemicals cannot be simply equated with hazardous waste; for example, hazardous chemicals such as “liquid oxygen” and “liquid nitrogen” have only the physical hazard of being “pressurized gases”. Second, it further clarifies the requirements for incorporating discarded hazardous chemicals into the environmental management of hazardous waste. After being discarded, some flammable and explosive hazardous chemicals retain their hazardous properties unchanged ； It is also difficult for regulatory authorities to determine whether hazardous chemicals have been discarded or not. Therefore, the **List of Hazardous Wastes (2021 Edition)** specifically stipulates regarding discarded hazardous chemicals that “they must be declared as discarded by their owners”; in other words, owners of hazardous chemicals are required to report such disposal to the emergency management authorities and environmental protection departments. The main cause of the “3·21” incident in Xiangshui was that the enterprise neither stabilized the waste hazardous chemicals in accordance with **relevant standards and brought them under environmental management as hazardous waste, nor reported them to the emergency management and ecological environment authorities, thereby evading supervision and leading to a major accident.