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Leach Testing for Material Reuse

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Issue

Reducing risk from waste materials is important to protecting the environment and public health. Research is needed to determine the risk of disposing of hazardous waste materials and to determine if some waste materials can be reused, thus reducing the burden on landfills and providing recycling solutions.

The Land Research Program (LRP) in EPA's Office of Research and Development is conducting research to determine the capacity of waste materials to release hazardous constituents into the environment either if disposed or reused. As part of this evaluation, leach testing is conducted to simulate the release of hazardous constituents.

Leach testing is a normal component of evaluating waste materials for compatibility with the local environment. When waste materials are considered for reuse purposes, it becomes critical to be able to simulate the release of any hazardous constituents.

For example some waste materials from mining operations or coal fly ash from power plants can be used to build road beds or used in drywall, mine filling or other land applications. Before these waste materials are used, however, testing is needed to determine if they have the potential to be hazardous.

Science Objective

The LRP has investigated a range of leaching tests that consider parameters recognized as factors in determining the release of hazardous constituents such as pH, redox state, liquid:solid ratio. These studies will continue, with the aim of validating the predictive capability of a set of tests.

Research is also under way to evaluate the application of a particular testing protocol to coal combustion residues (CCRs) and to compare results to leachate data from coal combustion residues CCR monofills. Research is planned to evaluate risks from beneficial use of CCRs or other materials that are normally disposed of in landfills.

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