In the 1980s, the implementation of hazardous waste regulations created additional demand for commercial hazardous waste management services that had not previous existed. At the end of the 1980s, the demand for services was beyond the capacity of the ten commercial hazardous waste incinerators operating at that time. Our research in 1991 found the ten incinerators operating in 1990 combusted about 300 thousand tons of waste.

The shortage of hazardous waste incineration capacity resulted in many new incineration projects being initiated in the 1980s such that there were 8 new large commercial hazardous waste incinerators operating in Canada and the United States by the mid 1990s; plus a handful of smaller specialized incineration units. As anticipated by the developers of the new incinerators, the demand for commercial hazardous waste services continued to grow strongly. By 1995, the demand for commercial hazardous waste incineration services had increased by an additional 100% to about 600 thousand tons per year.

Unfortunately, the combination of the newly constructed and existing incinerators had more capacity than there was demand for commercial hazardous waste incineration. By 1995, the demand and supply pendulum had swung to the opposite situation of a significant over supply of incineration in less than 5 years. By 2000, three incinerators had closed and major write-offs of assets had occurred. In 2000, the commercial hazardous waste incineration sector was still going through difficult times despite combusting over 150 % more than in 1990. As a result, during the period of 2000 through 2002, three more major incinerators would also be closed.

This report addresses the 2010 demand and supply for commercial hazardous waste incineration services in Canada and the United States. First reviewed in this report is what has most recently happened in 2010. There are subsequent compares between the demands in 2010 to 2009, and then subsequently comparisons to the previous decade (2000-2009). It further explores the data from the biennial reporting by hazardous waste generators for purposes of providing some state level trends and background pertinent to the analyst comments.

This report is prepared for owners and operators of hazardous waste management incinerators and similar stakeholders that require the most accurate, current market intelligence available on the annual demand for commercial hazardous waste incineration services and available capacity to commercial incinerate the hazardous waste. The report answers twenty key stakeholder questions:

1. How much was the total demand for hazardous waste combustion at commercial hazardous waste incinerators in 2009?

2. How did the 2009 total demand for hazardous waste incineration at hazardous waste incineration compare to 2008?

3. What was the maximum demand for hazardous waste incineration in the past 5 years? Since 2001?

4. Has the overall demand for hazardous waste combustion at hazardous waste incinerators increased, remained the same, or decreased in the past 5 years? Since 2001?

5. What is the market share of hazardous waste incineration of your company by tons disposed?

6. What percent of the hazardous waste incineration market did your facilities have in 2009? In 2008?

7. How did the change in hazardous waste demand from 2009 to 2008 at your incinerators compare to other incinerators?

8. How much total demand for nonhazardous waste combustion at hazardous waste incinerations was there in 2009?

9. How did 2009 nonhazardous waste demand for combustion at hazardous waste incinerations compare to the previous year?

10. What was the maximum nonhazardous waste demand at hazardous waste incinerations in the past 5 years? Since 2001?

11. Has the overall demand for nonhazardous waste combustion increased, remained the same, or decreased in the past 5 Years? Since 2001?

12. What is the market share of nonhazardous waste combustion at hazardous waste incineration captured by your company (by tons disposed)?

13. What percent market share did your facilities have in 2009 and 2008 for nonhazardous waste at subtitle C facilities?

14. How did the change in tons in nonhazardous waste demand in 2009 vs. 2008 at your incineration compare to other incinerations?

15. How much has the demand for nonhazardous and hazardous waste combustion at hazardous waste incinerators changed in 2005? 2001?

16. What percentage of the overall demand for hazardous and nonhazardous waste incineration did your company have in 2009?

17. What percentage of the overall demand for combined nonhazardous and hazardous waste combustion did your individual incinerations have in 2009 and 2008?

18. How did your overall hazardous and nonhazardous company-wide demand changes compare to other companies?

19. How did your incinerator's overall changes in hazardous and nonhazardous demand at your incinerators compare to other incinerators?

20. How did the overall trends at commercial waste incinerators compared to those for commercial hazardous waste fuel usage at BIFs in North America