TESTING OF 24 POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS WASTES USING 6 ECOTOXICOLOGICAL TESTS

Abstract

The ecotoxicological characterization of wastes according to the European Waste List (EWL) is part of their assessment as hazardous or non-hazardous. Despite inclusion in national laws no methodological details have been fixed concerning the hazard property HP 14 (“ecotoxic”).This paper intends to discuss the classification of wastes by ecotoxicological testing, using 24 representative samples of solid wastes (identified by their EWL number) with different properties. They were sampled according to standard methods, and, with one exception (galvanic sludge), ecotoxicologically tested. No chemical investigation of the samples was performed but they were characterized according to their properties in the ABANDA data base. Nearly all of these wastes were “mirror entries” in the EWL (i.e., they can be hazardous or not depending on the concentration of hazardous substances). For the ecotoxicological characterization three aquatic tests with eluates (genotoxicity, Algae, Daphnia) as well as three terrestrial tests with solid wastes (bacteria, plants, earthworms) were conducted. All investigations were performed as limit tests with three dilution steps. Algae, plants and terrestrial bacteria were the most sensitive organisms. Since no waste eluate showed any indication of genotoxicity, the genotoxicity test should be replaced by the luminescent bacteria test (ISO 11348-3). Proposals for toxicity criteria as well as hazard classifications were taken from the literature but they were modified according to own experiences. Using these concentration limits for the classification whether these wastes are ecotoxic or not, and using different versions of the hazard classification approach, 15-19 waste samples out of 23 waste samples were classified as ecotoxic (64-83%). It is proposed to perform a plausibility check of the respective HP 14-classification. The procedure used in this contribution (i.e. sampling of the wastes, their ecotoxicological testing as well as their hazard classification) could form the basis of a standardized hazard classification approach as proposed recently in the literature. In summary, this works confirms that ecotoxicological tests are practical and sensitive in order to be used for the ecotoxicological hazard classification of very different wastes.