Hazardous Waste Disposal for Small Businesses: Will it Always Be Expensive and Hard to Find?

摘要

A hazardous waste incident is one of the big concerns facing any community today. While prevention and response to larger incidents receive most of the attention, improper storage and disposal on smaller scales can also have serious cumulative impacts.rnThe City of Austin, Texas, like most cities in the United States, provides a number of different services addressing non-hazardous and hazardous wastes to both its residential solid waste services customers and commercial establishments in the Austin area. As in Austin, most municipalities tend to concentrate on providing services only to the residential component of the community, while the commercial sector is generally left to fend for themselves. This means that the segment of the community responsible for 60% of the generated waste lacks the opportunity to utilize certain waste reduction or disposal programs that are available only to homeowners. In addition, most of the businesses in any community usually have fewer than 25 employees, and do not have the resources or personnel to look into alternative waste management options that will help reduce waste volume and toxicity, and ensure proper disposal.