A cluster map displaying all hazardous waste managers that reported during the 2019 Biennial Report Cycle. Please search to discover facilities near you.


The mission of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to protect human health and the environment, which includes protection from the potential hazards of waste generation and disposal. To properly ensure the safe generation, management and final disposition of the nation's hazardous waste and limit the impacts on human health and the environment, EPA regulates the waste from the moment it is generated; while it is transported, treated, or stored; until the moment it is finally disposed, commonly known as "cradle to grave".

These hazardous wastes, which carry dangerous and harmful properties, can come in the form of a liquid, solid, contained gaseous material, or sludge. Some common examples of hazardous waste include discarded solvents used for industrial cleaning, automotive paint waste, toxic metal-bearing dust from steel production, and tank sludges from chemical manufacturing.

To the extent possible, EPA has developed hazardous waste regulations that balance the conservation of resources, while ensuring the protection of human health and environment. Many hazardous wastes can be recycled safely and effectively, while other wastes will be treated and disposed of in landfills or incinerators.


Biennial Hazardous Waste Report

To gain a better sense of the current state of hazardous waste in the United States, & as required by Congress, EPA collects and maintains information about the generation, management, and final disposition of the nation's hazardous waste via the Biennial Hazardous Waste Report, otherwise known as the Biennial Report. This requirement stemmed from a rising concern from the increased rates of waste generation, shrinking disposal capacity, rising disposal costs, and public opposition to the siting of new disposal facilities. To this end, EPA established a comprehensive regulatory program to ensure that hazardous waste is managed safely from "cradle to grave" meaning from the time it is created, while it is transported, treated, and stored, and until it is disposed.

Hazardous waste management information is obtained from data reported by facilities that treated, stored, recycled or disposed of hazardous wastes during the reporting year. 1 It is a federally mandated requirement for these hazardous waste managers to submit a report regarding the nature, quantities and disposition of hazardous waste managed at their facility, and is collected once every two years (but only one year's worth of data is submitted). The graphs below showcase data collected in the Biennial Report and serve as a snapshot of hazardous waste management in the United States since 2001. 2

These facilities are referred to as managers throughout this web page.


2001-2019: Total Hazardous Waste Managed (tons, millions)
This interactive graph shows the amount of hazardous waste reported in the Biennial Report by facilities that treated, stored, recycled and disposed of hazardous waste from 2001 to 2019. The total amount of hazardous waste reported has decreased by approximately 9.9 million tons over that time.

The totals reported for wastewater (wastes that contain a high percentage of water) and non-wastewater are also shown on this graph for 2001 to 2019. This distinction is made since wastewater -- of which the majority is generated and managed by the chemical manufacturing industry and the petroleum and coal products manufacturing industry -- is generated and managed in much greater quantities than non-wastewater and dominates the results of any analysis if they are not separated. In 2019, wastewaters represented over 80% of the total quantity of hazardous wastes managed in the United States.

2001-2019: Number of Managers (by count)

35.2 million tons of hazardous waste managed by 965 managers

In this graph, the number of facilities that treated, stored, recycled or disposed of hazardous waste that reported to the Biennial Report in one or more years from 2001 to 2019 is shown. There are 965 hazardous waste managers reporting Biennial Report data in 2019. These managers were responsible for managing over 35 million tons of hazardous waste that year.


Top 20 States

Total Hazardous Waste Reported in 2019 (tons, millions) This bar graph presents the states with the greatest amount of hazardous waste managed in 2019. In that year, the state of Texas accounted for half of all hazardous wastes managed. The overwhelming majority of this waste came in the form of wastewater (wastes that contain a high percentage of water). Use the toggles above the graph to see how the top states and amounts of hazardous waste managed changes when you choose non-wastewater instead of total or wastewater.

Total Number of Managers in 2019 (by count)
In 2019, 965 hazardous waste managers reported data to the Biennial Report. Texas and Washington state had the highest number of hazardous waste managers in its state, at 77 facilities each.


Top Three Industrial Sectors

Top 3 Industries: Hazardous Waste Management Reported by NAICS code in 2019 (tons, millions) The quantity and type of hazardous waste managed by the top industry sectors, identified by their North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code, from 2001 to 2019 is represented in this visual. Most of the waste managed is in the form of wastewater.

In 2019, 20.2 million tons of hazardous waste were managed by the Basic Chemical Manufacturing sector (NAICS 3251). This sector includes processes that manufacture styrofoam, dyes, plastics and chlorine.

In 2019, the Waste Treatment and Disposal sector (NAICS 5622) managed 5.8 million tons of hazardous waste.

In 2019, the Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing sector (NAICS 3241) managed 5.1 million tons of hazardous waste. This sector makes products such as asphalt (used for roads or shingles), biodiesel fuels and lubricating oils and greases.


Accessing More Biennial Report Data

The graphs above are only one way to explore the Biennial Report data. RCRAInfo Web is another! RCRAInfo Web makes the Biennial Report information accessible through online queries. You can find summary information nationally or by state, data by sector, waste type or the way the waste is managed, trends and more. Start on the Biennial Report Summary landing page and then use the left hand side navigation to get to the various other cuts of the data.

Data Considerations

1 The information reported includes hazardous waste managed by the same entity that generated it as well as those facilities that received the hazardous waste from off-site. However, hazardous wastes that are stored, bulked, and/or transferred off-site with no prior treatment or recovery, fuel blending, or disposal at the site, are excluded from the management quantities. Some states have hazardous waste regulations that are more stringent or broader in scope than the federal regulations while other States' regulations mirror the federal regulations.

The amount of hazardous waste reported as managed is larger than the amount reported as generated. This is because the amounts reported as managed include all hazardous wastes that may not be reported as generated because they may be from those generators that are not required to report the hazardous waste generation to the Biennial Report such as households, very small quantity generators, and small quantity generators. Additionally, some exempt hazardous wastes, universal waste, and certain hazardous wastes that are recycled do not have to be reported as generated, but may be sent to a facility that treats, stores, recycles or disposes of these wastes and they may report managing that waste on their Biennial Report forms.

2 EPA and its state partners have been collecting hazardous waste management data from treatment, storage, recycling and disposal facilities through the Biennial Report since the 1980's. However, the type of data collected drastically changed (standardized, with an aggressive focus on data quality) for the 2001 reporting cycle so EPA is only providing trend information back to 2001.

For more information about the data used in this page, please reach out to the author.

United States Environmental Protection Agency 2019 Biennial Report Data from the Generation and Management and Waste Received forms.

Data is submitted and updated by EPA and States on an ongoing and rolling basis. These graphics are based on 2019 Biennial report data and were extracted on Jan 14, 2020.