Hazardous Waste Disposal

Implementation of Hazardous Waste Regulations and the Landfill Directive have resulted in the biggest change in the management and disposal of hazardous waste and chemical wastes for more than 30 years.

Many new waste have been classed as hazardous waste with the introduction of definitions contained in the European Waste Catalogue and changes in licensing and the adoption of more stringent Waste Acceptance Criteria testing have restricted the number of sites able to process certain types of hazardous, chemical and toxic waste.

Acorn Environmental are able to help work through the complex regulations and come up with compliant cost effective hazardous waste and chemical disposal solutions.

With many years experience in this specialist field and licensed by the Environment Agency Acorn Environmental can handle all types of hazardous waste streams, including chemicals, pesticides, oils, solvents, paints etc.

Using our extensive knowledge we will select the most appropriate disposal route for your waste, ensuring that all documentation is in place, options for hazardous waste disposal are:

  • HAZARDOUS LANDFILL, historically the cheapest option but changes in waste acceptance criteria and reductions in capacity make delivering waste directly to site often impractical and uneconomic. Still a viable option for larger quantities and bulk waste (contaminated soils) as well as regular homogeneous waste such as contaminated packaging. All waste must be subject to laboratory analysis before acceptance, which adds costs pre disposal.
  • INCINERATION, there are a number of incinerators around the country with different capabilities. Some can burn non-hazardous waste and clinical waste with energy recovery (some recycling) whilst most hazardous waste, including all pesticides, go to special high temperature waste incinerators for final destruction.
  • TREATMENT/RECOVERY, most chemical waste is consigned to treatment and processing plants before going to their final disposal sites. These facilities will process wastes e.g. by neutralising acid/basic wastes denaturing aqueous solutions and shredding and reducing the volume of packaging. Low flash point wastes may be recovered for re-use in chem.-fuels.

Using our extensive knowledge Acorn Environmental can advise on the suitability of each disposal route and arrange for any necessary testing and analysis required