August 25, 1999 — For Immediate Release

Contact: Jamie Rosenberg Phone: 612/831-2473 ext. 14

Cary Perket 858/488-4760

HazWaste Landfill Volumes Hold Steady in Strong Economy

Small companies gain market share

EI Digest, North America’s premier research service for the commercial hazardous waste management industry, has released the results of its annual survey of the commercial hazardous waste landfill sector. The results show that volumes of hazardous waste disposed in North America’s 23 commercial landfills in 1998 — 2.8 million tons — remained about the same as 1997. There were, however, two major changes in the sector’s performance last year:

The amount of remediation waste increased by 8 percent to 43 percent of hazardous volumes;

Smaller companies in the hazardous waste land disposal sector gained marketshare.

EI researcher Jamie Rosenberg points out that the landfill sector saw an uncharacteristic surge in cleanup wastes. This was driven in part by a rise in available financial resources to manufacturing industries as a result of a healthy economy. "The overall increase in remediation waste is small," Rosenberg says, "but generators are taking advantage of the strong economy to get these projects over and done with in order to reduce long-term liability — even in the absence of Superfund."

The landfill sector also underwent a strong shift in market share, but according to EI’s senior analyst Cary Perket, these changes could be the result of several complex issues. "Marketshare can shift dramatically from year to year because of remediation projects," Perket says. "In 1998, we also had significant new demand for the disposal of KO61 generated by the steel industry at EnviroSource facilities. This leads to the conclusion that base demand for land disposal from other manufacturing industries decreased in 1998."

Perket adds that it would be inappropriate to conclude that waste minimization is behind the implied decrease, citing other factors such as:

On-site treatment at the manufacturing plant creates nonhazardous residue that is sent to nonhazardous landfills;

Changing regulations make it possible for commercial treatment facilities to create more nonhazardous treatment residuals;

Process changes reduce the presence of hazardous constituents, making it possible to send more material to nonhazardous landfills.

The landfill research appears in Report #4 of the 1999 EI Digest: Hazardous Waste Marketplace, a contract subscription-based research service of Environmental Information Limited (EI). EI also provides information on commercial hazardous waste landfills in its on-line EI TSD Compliance & Audit Service and the EI Environmental Services Database through Envirobiz (http://www.envirobiz.com). The hazardous waste landfills are also among the over 400 hazardous waste facilities displayed on EI’s 1999-2000 reference wall map.

Further information for these services is available on Envirobiz (http://www.envirobiz.com). Envirobiz is a leading environmental Internet site and web host for proprietary databases, information, newsletters, and research services for environmental professionals. Environmental Information Limited has provided proprietary subscription-based and custom research on the marketplace for environmental services and technology since 1983. For more information on Envirobiz or Environmental Information Research Services, call 1-612-831-2473, fax 612-831-6550, or e-mail ei@mr.net. Environmental Information is located at 7301 Ohms Lane, Suite 460, Edina, Minnesota 55439.

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