Beginning September 5, 2006, generators of hazardous waste will be required by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and state environmental regulators to use a new uniform hazardous waste manifest.  The uniform hazardous waste manifest was developed by USEPA to simplify and standardize hazardous waste manifesting throughout the United States.  All previous hazardous waste manifest versions are obsolete after the implementation date, and will not be accepted by USEPA licensed disposal facilities or federal and state hazardous waste regulators. 

The uniform hazardous waste manifest streamlines and standardizes the waste manifesting process via a number of important improvements, including: 

• Establishment of a single standard waste manifest form that can be used nationwide, to reduce the burden on hazardous waste generators and transporters who operate in more than one state.
• Standardization of the content and appearance of the hazardous waste manifest form and continuation sheet (Forms 8700-22 and 22a), which includes the addition and deletion of fields.
• Availability of manifest forms from any USEPA approved manifest printer.
• Waste generators no longer have to provide the state environmental agency a copy of the completed manifest form.  (The disposal facility must send a copy of the uniform manifest to state environmental agency, if required.)
• Waste generators are provided additional time to address shipment problems or file a discrepancy report with a state environmental agency.
• Instructions regarding rejected loads and improved tracking of “problem wastes”, such as:  hazardous wastes that destination facilities reject (rejected loads), waste residues from hazardous waste containers that were not completely empty, or wastes entering or leaving the United States.

Generators of hazardous waste, transporters of hazardous waste, and operators of hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities are all affected by the recently implemented uniform hazardous waste manifest requirement, and should ensure compliance with new manifest requirement, to avoid potential penalties or disposal complications.