Field Notebook · Commercial Waste Compliance
A working blog on the practical side of hazardous waste disposal, paint waste disposal, and smoke detector & fire alarm disposal. Written for facility managers, EHS coordinators, and commercial contractors who need answers that hold up in an audit.
This site covers commercial waste streams only. For a broader look at U.S. commercial waste hauling operations, our contributors sometimes reference the field notes and service pages at American Waste Haulers.
Latest posts
Generator status, the 90-day rule, and the mistakes that come up most often on Ship Channel walk-throughs.
Read the postLatex is not always harmless, oil-based rarely is, and the IEPA has opinions about both.
Read the postIonization vs. photoelectric, the americium-241 question, and why the dumpster is never the answer.
Read the postWhy the state list is longer than the federal one, and what that means for a warehouse in Vernon.
Read the postGeorgia EPD's approach to industrial paint waste, and why the flashpoint number matters.
Read the postWhy building-wide retrofits in Manhattan get expensive quickly, and how to price the disposal side.
Read the postSalt air, hurricane staging, and the FDEP rules that don't get mentioned in the compliance webinars.
Read the postMachining coolants, quench oils, and the paperwork that catches up with plants that don't segregate properly.
Read the postTCLP testing, aerosol cans, and how MDE tends to interpret a partially-full 5-gallon pail.
Read the postAbout this blog
Most of what we know about hazardous waste disposal we picked up on job sites, in inspection debriefs, and in the parking lot after a bad audit. This blog is the version of those conversations that we wish we'd had in writing years ago — plain-language notes on RCRA, universal waste, and the local wrinkles that show up in Houston, Chicago, Miami, Detroit, and everywhere else commercial operators have to keep the paperwork straight. Everything here is written for commercial customers: warehouses, plants, contractors, property managers, healthcare-adjacent buildings that generate ordinary industrial waste, and the property owners responsible for them.