IDEM: Managing Waste: Solid Waste Types
Current: Solid Waste Types
General Trash/Garbage - Municipal Solid Waste
Municipal solid waste (MSW) includes all items from homes and businesses that people no longer have any use for. These wastes are commonly called trash or garbage and include items such as food, paper, plastics, textiles, leather, wood, glass, metals, sanitary waste in septic tanks, and other wastes. MSW is usually left on the curbside weekly and picked up by a dump truck and taken to be buried in a landfill or burned in an incinerator. MSW may be taken to a transfer station for consolidation before it is taken to a landfill or an incinerator. MSW may be sent to a permitted processing facility.
MSW is defined in 329 IAC 10-2-115. Construction/Demolition Waste, Industrial Process Waste, Infectious Waste, Coal Combustion Residual (CCR) Waste, Hazardous Waste, and Pollution Control Waste are not MSW. However, a MSW landfill can accept non-hazardous non-MSW waste, unless prohibited by 329 IAC 10-9-2(b).
Non-Municipal Solid Waste
Waste that is not created by community activities or residential/commercial establishments are non-municipal solid waste. This could also include solid waste generated by industries.
While creating products, industries produce waste which is called Non-Municipal Solid Waste (NMSW). Manufacturing industry waste is made up of many different waste streams arising from a wide range of industrial processes. Industrial process waste is defined in 329 IAC 10-2-95. Some of the typical industrial sectors found in Indiana include the light and heavy manufacturing, assembly, construction sites, power and chemical plants producing basic metals, ashes, glass, food, beverage, wood and many other products. These industries generate various wastes that came from their pollution control equipment or from their industrial process. Pollution control waste is defined in 329 IAC 10-2-137. Examples of such waste include: water and wastewater treatment sludge, baghouse dust, scrubber sludge, and clean-up wastes.
Construction/demolition (C/D) waste is defined in 329 IAC 10-2-37. C/D waste or debris are solid waste resulting from demolition of structures. This typically includes waste like scrap lumber, drywall, roofing materials, non-asbestos insulation, bricks, concrete, glass, plumbing, and electrical fixtures. C/D waste must be further shredder, crushed, ground, pulverized, or otherwise processed after construction/demolition or prior to disposal to a form unrecognizable as C/D waste.
Industrial solid wastes include industrial process wastes and pollution control wastes generated by manufacturing or industrial processes that are not hazardous wastes, such as coal ash and foundry wastes. A waste classification is needed to dispose this waste in a restricted waste site/landfill (RWS). Based on the constituents’ concentrations, IDEM assigns one of 4 classes of restricted waste (Type I, Type II, Type III and Type IV). RWS criteria are specified in 329 IAC 10-9-4.
Infectious waste is not a municipal solid waste. Infectious waste is defined by the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) rules (410 IAC 1-3-10) and Indiana code IC 16-41-16-4 as waste capable of transmitting a dangerous communicable disease.
CCR Waste
CCR means fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and flue gas desulfurization materials generated from burning coal for the purpose of generating electricity by electric utilities and independent power producers. Beneficial uses, with an exception for quantity less than 12,400 tons, and placement of CCR in surface impoundments and landfills are regulated under 40 CFR 257. Indiana has adopted by reference the requirements for surface impoundments in 329 IAC 10-9-1. Currently, IDEM is working on developing CCR rule and permitting program for landfills, surface impoundments, and beneficial use regulated by 40 CFR 257.