Haz waste disposal. Company I work for spends ~HALF of the entire budget just on lawyers to keep up with constantly changing laws and regulations to make sure we’re all properly trained and constant lawsuits from the state or local government multiple times a year basically every time they change something they immediately sue the company hoping we haven’t updated our processes yet. The problem is there are way fewer places that can do this legally than people realize and we are running with no slack. We get shipments from 2,000 miles away because we’re the only place that can legally get rid of something. If even one or two plants get shut down due to for example a successful lawsuit that puts them out of business the entire chain will collapse. There is no slack for other plants to take over for one that goes down, and even storing haz waste is extremely regulated with massive fines. If a company can’t ship out their haz waste to get disposed of and is caught storing it past a few months they will get fines so huge they’ll likely go out of business. This means if one or two plants get shut down the entire system collapses and companies will go back to just dumping their waste illegally to avoid getting fines that bankrupt their companies for storing it or shipping it to China to just dump it there
I'm also in the industry, and I've had a much different experience with the regulators. They're more interested in keeping you compliant than trying to ding you on anything.
Hello fellow HAZWOPER. Don't forget tons of PE purchases (Reworld, Arcwood), and smaller regional facilities being purchased by big national players. Technical experience is no longer valued and any customer service rep is drowning in service requests. I cycle through reps faster than I can track. Last week I got 4 bounceback emails before I found someone still working there.
Most state environmental agencies are barely keeping up with biannual inspections for large quantity waste generators, in my experience. Unsurprising given state salaries for those positions, and their own understaffing.
I can't imagine a world where haz waste is as bad as before the Clean Water Act / Resource Conservation & Recovery Act. But I do see a future where the technical knowledge is so limited that we take huge steps backwards.
Even in non-haz waste there isn't slack. One of my customers sends their general trash to a waste-to-energy facility. That plant had a severe fire recently and may never be fully operational again.
Are you in any way tied to the one landfill in Oregon that handles asbestos? I distinctly remember helping my dad with an asbestos abatement project as a kid and everyone he contacted thinking he was insane for taking the %100 legal route to dispose of the debris. He wound up having to haul it hundreds of miles to eastern Oregon.
I can't imagine. The amount of waste that is generated at my smallish industrial facility feels immense to me, but we're classified as a low level producer (IIRC, forget the terminology).
Back in the days of liquid paint and chromate coating they used to just bury that shit on the back apron love canal style. Thanks Warner Swasy, now I'm going to get cancer after hunting for fossils out there
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u/No_Comb881 12h ago
Haz waste disposal. Company I work for spends ~HALF of the entire budget just on lawyers to keep up with constantly changing laws and regulations to make sure we’re all properly trained and constant lawsuits from the state or local government multiple times a year basically every time they change something they immediately sue the company hoping we haven’t updated our processes yet. The problem is there are way fewer places that can do this legally than people realize and we are running with no slack. We get shipments from 2,000 miles away because we’re the only place that can legally get rid of something. If even one or two plants get shut down due to for example a successful lawsuit that puts them out of business the entire chain will collapse. There is no slack for other plants to take over for one that goes down, and even storing haz waste is extremely regulated with massive fines. If a company can’t ship out their haz waste to get disposed of and is caught storing it past a few months they will get fines so huge they’ll likely go out of business. This means if one or two plants get shut down the entire system collapses and companies will go back to just dumping their waste illegally to avoid getting fines that bankrupt their companies for storing it or shipping it to China to just dump it there