Universal waste is a category of waste materials designated as "hazardous waste", but containing materials that are very common. It is defined in 40 CFR part 273, by the United States Environmental Protection Agency but states may also have corollary regulations regarding these materials.
Universal Waste includes:
- Batteries
- Pesticides
- Mercury-containing equipment (including many thermostats)
- Lamps containing mercury (e.g. fluorescent lamps, including compact fluorescent lamps)
Businesses and other generators of such waste are required to provide for their proper disposal.
Famous quotes containing the words universal and/or waste:
“To revolutionize, at one effort, the universal world of human thought, human opinion, and human sentiment.... All that he has to do is to write and publish a very little book. Its title should be simple—a few plain words—”My Heart Laid Bare.” But—this little book must be true to its title.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
“Long ago the country bore the country-town and nourished it with her best blood. Now the giant city sucks the country dry, insatiably and incessantly demanding and devouring fresh streams of men, till it wearies and dies in the midst of an almost uninhabited waste of country.”
—Oswald Spengler (1880–1936)