Waste and Hazardous Materials
• 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.
• 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.
• Forty-three (43) percent of small businesses recycle electronic equipment, such as computer screens and televisions.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Forty (40) percent of small employers report that a government agency has examined their hazardous material records within the last three years.
• 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.
• The most plentiful hazardous material in a small business with at least one is typically also the most dangerous hazardous material.
• 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.
• 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.
