Recently, the "General Rules for the Identification of Hazardous Wastes" (GB5085.7-2019) (hereinafter referred to as the "General Rules") and the "Technical Specifications for the Identification of Hazardous Wastes" (HJ298-2019) (hereinafter referred to as the "Technical Specifications") were issued and implemented. Relevant persons in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment answered questions from reporters on the background and ideas of the revision of the "General Rules" and "Technical Specifications".

Question: What are the main backgrounds and ideas of this revision of the "General Principles" and "Technical Specifications"?

Answer: The "General Principles" and "Technical Specifications" are two important standards in the hazardous waste identification system. The "General Principles" stipulate the procedures and rules for the identification of hazardous wastes, which are the basis of the hazardous waste identification standard system; the "Technical Specifications" specify the technical requirements for sample collection, testing and judgment in the identification process of hazardous wastes, and are the basic criteria for standardizing identification work . These two standards were formulated and issued for the first time in 2007, and played an important role in regulating hazardous waste identification and environmental management.

In recent years, with the further strengthening of standardized management of hazardous wastes, various localities have carried out the identification of hazardous wastes in an orderly manner. However, the "General Principles" and "Technical Specifications" have unclear identification objects, unspecific sampling methods, unreasonable determination rules, long identification cycles and high costs, and other problems have gradually emerged, making it difficult to adapt to the requirements of hazardous waste environmental management. Therefore, it is urgent to revise and improve hazardous waste identification standards to meet the new requirements of my country's hazardous waste environmental management and identification.

Ideas for this revision of the standard: First, improve hazardous waste identification procedures, accurately identify hazardous wastes, and effectively control environmental risks; second, optimize technical requirements such as sampling and testing to shorten the identification cycle and reduce identification costs; third, encourage the recycling of hazardous wastes Utilize, save hazardous waste incineration and landfill disposal resources, and promote the diversification of hazardous waste utilization and disposal methods.

Question: What are the main contents of this revision of the General Regulations?

Answer: The main content of this revision of the "General Principles" includes three aspects:

The first is to improve the identification procedures. Article 4.3 is revised to "not included in the "National Hazardous Waste List", but does not exclude corrosive, toxic, flammable, and reactive solid waste, according to GB 5085.1, GB 5085.2, GB 5085.3, GB 5085.4, GB 5085.5 and GB 5085.6, and HJ 298 for identification...".

The second is to modify the rules for judging hazardous wastes after mixing, and the mixed result, that is, "causing the diffusion of hazardous properties into other substances", is used as a prerequisite for judging that the mixed solid waste is hazardous waste.

The third is to modify the rules for determining the utilization process of hazardous wastes with toxic and hazardous characteristics, that is, "solid wastes generated during the utilization process of hazardous wastes with toxic and hazardous properties that no longer have hazardous properties after being identified are not classified as hazardous wastes."

Question: This "General Principles" has improved the identification procedures. What effect does it have on the identification work?

Answer: This revision and improvement of the "General Principles" optimizes the identification procedures, making the hazardous waste identification system more operable. For example, for solid wastes that need to be identified that are not included in the "National Hazardous Waste List", follow-up characteristics testing can only be carried out if they cannot be ruled out with hazardous properties; if they can be ruled out with hazardous properties based on the raw and auxiliary materials and processes they produce, then It is not necessary to carry out hazardous property detection work or auxiliary detection work, and directly make the attribute determination that the solid waste does not have hazardous properties, thereby avoiding excessive detection in the hazardous waste identification process.

Question: The "General Rules" amended the mixed judgment rules. What should be paid attention to when using the judgment rules?

Answer: The mixing determination rules stipulated in the original "General Rules" have played an important role in preventing the dilution of mixed hazardous wastes. Many years of practice have found that this rule has also caused the disposal volume and disposal costs of mixed wastes to increase. In order to avoid this situation, Article 5.1 of the newly revised "General Rules" adds a consequence judgment on the basis of the mixed behavior judgment in the original "General Rules", that is, "causes the diffusion of hazardous properties to other substances."

Two points need to be paid attention to when using the mixed judgment rule in the identification work: First, the “mixing” described in the "General Principles" refers to two or more solid wastes or solid wastes that will be generated from different sources or nodes. The act of mixing substances together; second, it is necessary to judge whether the mixing leads to the diffusion of hazardous properties to other substances based on the existence of pollutants in hazardous waste and the migration of substances during the mixing process to determine whether it is suitable for mixing After the judgment rule.

Question: This revision of the "General Rules" adds a post-disposal determination rule for hazardous waste. What should be paid attention to when using the determination rule?

Answer: This time, the "Judgment Rule after Disposal" in the original "General Rules" is revised to the "Judgment Rule after Disposal of Utilization". In the identification work, the following two points need to be paid attention to when implementing the post-utilization and disposal determination rules for hazardous wastes:

One is that the "utilization" situation applicable to this "General Principles" refers to "the activity of extracting substances from solid waste as raw materials or fuels". For example, the extraction of valuable metal elements from solid wastes containing heavy metals such as electroplating sludge, and the extraction of mineral oil from waste mineral oil and oily sludge. The attributes of the solid waste generated during the utilization process can be determined in accordance with the identification procedures specified in Chapter 4 of the General Regulations. If the solid waste generated during the utilization process has been included in the “National Hazardous Waste List”, there is no need to carry out the identification of hazardous characteristics, and it still belongs to Hazardous Waste.

The second is solid waste generated after the disposal of hazardous wastes with toxic and hazardous properties and the use and disposal of hazardous wastes with infectious and hazardous properties. If there are special provisions in the relevant national laws and standards, the management of hazardous wastes may not be followed, otherwise they are still hazardous wastes. Only solid wastes produced after disposal of hazardous wastes that have one or more of the hazardous properties of corrosiveness, flammability, and reactivity can be identified through the identification procedures.

Question: What are the key contents of this revision of the "Technical Specifications"?

Answer: The key contents of this revision of the "Technical Specifications" include the following three aspects:

One is to expand the scope of application. The identification procedures and technical requirements for the hazardous characteristics of solid wastes involved in environmental incidents have been increased, and the solid wastes involved in environmental incidents such as the illegal transfer, dumping, storage, utilization, and disposal of solid wastes, as well as the solids generated during environmental emergencies and their treatment processes, have been increased. The rationality of the identification of waste attributes.

The second is to optimize technical requirements. Further refine and clarify the requirements for identification objects, number of replicates, sample testing, and test result judgments in different situations to improve the feasibility of identification. Modified the regulations on the number of sample copies in the identification process, supplemented the basis for determining the number of sample copies in the case of parallel production line production, by improving the accuracy and analogy of the collected samples, reducing the number of samples, shortening the identification period, and reducing the identification cost.

The third is to improve the identification procedures. In the process of sample testing, the identification requirements for solid waste generated during the utilization process or after disposal have been added. In the actual identification work, the detection priority can be determined according to the possibility of the various hazardous characteristics of the solid waste exceeding the standard, so as to avoid excessive performance detection.