Waste and Hazardous Materials

1. 1

   Small-business garbage/waste is typically taken away by a waste hauler (72%). Thirteen (13) percent of small employers do the job themselves and another 10 percent have a landlord do it for them.

2. 2

   Forty-five (45) percent of small businesses recycle both paper products and metal (cans). Thirty-five (35) percent recycle plastics and 27 percent glass. Twenty (20) percent recycle all four product categories. Thirty-seven (37) percent recycle none of them.

3. 3

   Forty-three (43) percent of small businesses recycle electronic equipment, such as computer screens and televisions.

4. 4

   Twenty-five (25) percent of small employers have inventoried their business in the last three years to determine the use, storage and disposal of hazardous materials.

5. 5

   Twenty-one (21) percent of small businesses transport, store or dispose of hazardous materials. Of that number, 25 percent transport them; 77 percent store them; and 57 percent dispose of them.

6. 6

   Over half (57%) of small businesses storing hazardous materials are conditional exempt generators as classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Thirty-eight (38) percent of them are small generators and 2 percent are large generators. The remainder do not know the amount of hazardous waste they store.

7. 7

   Most small employers who work with hazardous substances keep records on a limited number of them. Sixty-nine (69) percent keep records on any such substance. Of those who do, 30 percent keep records on a single substance and another 19 percent keep them on two.

8. 8

   Forty (40) percent of small employers report that a government agency has examined their hazardous material records within the last three years.

9. 9

   Hazardous wastes from small businesses are most frequently carted off by a certified hauler (57%). The second most frequent means of disposal (17%) is that the firm itself takes the waste to an authorized land fill. Eight percent recycle it on the premises.

10. 10

    The most plentiful hazardous material in a small business with at least one is typically also the most dangerous hazardous material.

11. 11

    Virtually no small business has had a hazardous material spill serious enough in the last three years to bring in another firm to help with the clean-up.

12. 12

    Small businesses appear to use fewer/less hazardous substances per unit of output than they did three years ago. About 7 percent eliminated the use of hazardous substances entirely while 8 percent reduced their use.

Volume 7, Issue 2, 2007
ISSN 1534-8326

William J. Dennis, Jr.
NFIB Research Foundation

• 1Within the last three years have you or has someone on your behalf inventoried your business for the use, storage, or disposal of hazardous materials, such as acids, solvents, pesticides, used oil, heavy metals like lead or mercury, unused chemicals, paint waste, highly combustible substances, and t...
• 2Does your business use, store, transport, or dispose of hazardous materials like those just mentioned in its operation? Small amounts of household-like cleaning supplies don’t count.
• 2aDo you transport hazardous material in your business’s operation?
• 2bDo you store or use hazardous material?
• 2cDo you dispose of or trash hazardous material wastes?
• 2dDo you store, dispose of, or transport ENOUGH hazardous materials that you are required to notify the federal Environmental Protection Agency, or its state equivalent, of those materials?
• 2d1Are you a conditional exempt generator, a small quantity generator, or a large quantity generator as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency, or are you not sure?
• 2d2Do you estimate that your business disposes of:?
• 2d3EPA classification of small business (combined results of prior two questions.)
• 2eDo you keep records or a manifest of all hazardous materials used?
• 2e1Approximately, how many such hazardous substances do you keep records on?
• 2e2In the last three years, has EPA or another governmental agency examined those records?
• 2e3Do you use those records for any business purpose, other than to satisfy government requirements?
• 2fHow do you dispose of your most PLENTIFUL hazardous waste? Do you:?
• 2gHow do you dispose of your most HAZARDOUS or DANGEROUS hazardous waste? Do you:?
• 2hAre your most plentiful hazardous waste and your most hazardous or dangerous waste the same substance?
• 2iIn the last three years, did you experience a spill or a leak of a hazardous substance serious enough to require bringing in outside help to clean it up?
• 2jIn the last three years, have you been able to substitute less hazardous or non-hazardous materials for the hazardous materials you once used?
• 2kIn the last three years, has the amount of hazardous material your business stores and disposes of increased, decreased, or stayed about the same on a per unit of sales basis?
• 3Which best describes your business situation over the last three years?
• 4How often do you typically dispose of the solid non-hazardous waste your business generates?
• 4aWho picks up the solid, non-hazardous waste from your business?
• 5A(recycle) Paper product waste
• 5B(recycle) Glass product waste
• 5C(recycle) Plastics product waste
• 5D(recycle) Cans and similar metal product waste
• 6Why doesn’t your business recycle? Is the primary reason because:?
• 7Does your business recycle or send to be recycled its used electronic equipment, such as computers, cell phones, televisions or batteries?