Hazardous Waste

Veronika, if you just want to know if lamps (light bulbs) are considered hazardous waste for LEED purposes, the answer is yes if they contain certain levels of mercury. The U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) determines what hazardous materials and waste are. Fluorescent lamps are generally considered to be hazardous waste in the U.S. (Lamps that pass a federal regulations test called the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TLCP) are not considered hazardous, but the waste generator must prove it passes, which is unlikely to happen). If you wanted a more general definition of hazardous materials from the US EPA, that answer gets rather complex and breaks into categories. If the mercury lamp answer is not what you were after, I can give it another try.

I will refer you Veronika to the U.S. source for hazardous waste standards and regulation since I am not an expert on the complex topic of hazardous waste. It is a topic that goes deeper the more you dig. Here is a link to the U.S. EPA that should answer your question and then some. The first two topics below on that site should help with answers: http://www.epa.gov/osw/hazard/ Learn more about hazardous waste and the regulations that govern it: • Definition of Solid Waste (DSW): Before a material can be classified as a hazardous waste, it must first be a solid waste as defined under RCRA. Resources, including an interactive tool, are available to help. • Types of Hazardous Waste: Hazardous waste are divided into listed wastes, characteristic wastes, universal wastes, and mixed wastes. Specific procedures determine how waste is identified, classified, listed, and delisted.