Minnesota Characteristic Waste: What you need to know

Characteristics of hazardous waste: Minnesota Rules (MR) 7045.0131

Oxidizers: MR 7045.0131, Subpart 3

Lethality: MR 7045.0131, Subpart 6

How to determine lethality: MR 7045.0131, Subpart 6(B)

Additional evaluation: MR 7045.0131, Subpart 6(C)

Lethality exemption: MR 7045.0133

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Industrial Division Compliance and Enforcement Section Hazardous Waste Compliance and Enforcement Unit

See ADDRESSES & CONTACTS for addresses and telephone numbers.

See national section for basic information and federal regulations.

• Rules. Minnesota uses the federal criteria to identify characteristics of hazardous wastes; however, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) also identifies "oxidizer" and "lethality" as hazardous waste characteristics. While the federal regulations include "oxidizers" as wastes with the characteristic of ignitability, the federal rules do not identify "lethality" as characteristic hazardous waste. MPCA notes that since Minnesota identifies "lethality" as a hazardous waste characteristic, some wastes, such as batteries, may be hazardous in Minnesota although they are not at the federal level. Wastes that are hazardous due to the state's lethality characteristic may be managed as a universal waste in Minnesota. See the state sections HAZWASTE DETERMINATION (CLASSIFICATION) and UNIVERSAL WASTES for more information.

Although Minnesota's regulations still identify the characteristic of toxicity using the federal Extraction Procedure (EP) test, generators must use the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) when testing for toxicity. For additional information on EP and TCLP, see the ...