Question

Hazardous waste generators are liable for mismanagement of waste, even after it leaves the site, for how long?

Answer 1

Depends on waste characteristics and other factors.

Explanation:

Hazardous wastes cause environmental damage ifnot managed properly. As of 1991, hazardous waste dominated the $8.2 billion environmental consulting market (LaGrega et al., 1994).

The environmental and human/environmental health consequences of the residuals and wastes of our technological community were not understood or even recognized initially; it took years or decades for chronic effects to manifest themselves, and those cases were obscured by the fact that everybody is exposed to a wide number of hazardous compounds.

There is no single and perfect solution for hazardous wastes. Incineration might cause further atmospheric contamination, landfilling may create groundwater contamination, and solidification techniques might be useless in long time to control hazard of hazardous wastes, etc..

The question, indeed, if there is a hazardous waste to be managed, what are hazardous constituents (factors) in it, state of it (liquid, sludge, or solid), decompositon (decay) mechanisms (temperature, climate, etc.), etc. Then you can get an initial idea, whether it is really a must to manage this case or you could take precautions to care it in the future.

Reference:

LaGrega, M. D., Buckingham, P. L., Evans, J. C. (1994) "Hazardous Waste Management" McGraw Hill, Inc. New York, NY, USA.