Hazardous waste disposal in Charleston, SC
Charleston is shaped by a container port with aerospace assembly and marine industry around it, and what that means for waste is decided by what those processes generate and by the South Carolina program the site operates under — not by the city line on a map.
The rule in South Carolina
South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES)
Waste generated in Charleston is regulated by SCDES, which administers the authorized hazardous waste program for South Carolina over the federal baseline. What that adds for a Charleston site, and where South Carolina differs from the state next door, is set out on the state page.
Who answers, and what that means
Charleston is a planned-collection distance from the Tampa, FL office rather than a drop-everything one, which makes a scheduled route with consolidation the sensible pattern here — a site that plans its removals gets both better service and a better price than one calling when a drum is already past its date.
What generates it in Charleston
The facility types the work around Charleston, SC usually comes from, each with its own page on what that process produces and under which codes — the part that decides a price.
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- Used oil / universal waste
- Inherited from the cargo
- Depends on prior cargo
- Varies by commodity
Transportation
- Fleet maintenance waste
- Spill response residues
- Tank and trailer wash residues
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- F019
- D007 / F-listed
- F006 / F007 / F009
- D001 / varies
Aerospace
- Conversion coating treatment sludge
- Spent paint stripper and removed coating
- Plating and strip tank solutions
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- D008 / D007
- D001 / F003 / F005
- Oily water
- F001 - F005
Shipbuilding
- Spent abrasive blast media
- Paints, coatings and thinners
- Bilge, ballast and tank cleaning water
The routes a stream can take
Collection in Charleston, SC is the easy half — where a stream goes afterwards is decided by its codes and by the Land Disposal Restrictions rather than by preference.
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- Depends on prior cargo
- F019
- Oily water
Industrial Wastewater Treatment
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- Used oil / universal waste
- Refrigerant rules apply
Nonhazardous Waste Disposal
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- Inherited from the cargo
- F001 - F005
RCRA Hazardous Waste Disposal
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- D001 / varies
- Used oil / D001
Fuels Blending Services
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- D007 / F-listed
- D001 / F003 / F005
Hazardous Waste Incineration
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- D001 / varies
- Metal-dependent
Non-Acute Hazardous Waste Disposal
Asked from Charleston
The four things generators around Charleston, SC ask before anything else, answered from the rules rather than from a brochure.
Greer collects in Charleston, SC, dispatched from the Tampa, FL office on its own permits and its own equipment. There is no facility in Charleston, SC itself — Greer runs two offices, and South Carolina is covered from one of them rather than from a depot in every city that has a page.
South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) administers the authorized hazardous waste program for South Carolina, over the federal baseline rather than instead of it. So a waste generated in Charleston is classified the same way it would be anywhere in the country, and the requirements around storing, moving and reporting it are South Carolina's.
An unidentified container in Charleston, SC is a smaller problem this week than it is next year, so the first thing is to leave it alone: do not move it, and do not open it if anything has crystallized around the cap. Tell the Tampa, FL office where on the Charleston, SC site it came from and what the process beside it does, and identification is arranged before collection rather than after.
No — for a site in Charleston, SC, describing the process that makes the waste and roughly how much of it there is gets you a price. A Certified Hazardous Materials Manager profiles it from that, which is the work you are buying, and guessing a code yourself only transfers the liability for it back to you, in South Carolina exactly as anywhere else.
Elsewhere in South Carolina
Collection across South Carolina is not limited to the places with their own page. These are simply the ones near Charleston, SC with enough demand to be worth writing about.
Something in Charleston that needs identifying?
Describe the process that made it and roughly how much there is — Tampa, FL takes the call, and a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager reads every request before anyone quotes it.