The regulations at 40 CFR § 262.11, provide important information about when a waste determination must be made, and how to determine if a hazardous waste has been generated; i.e., what types of information (generator knowledge or testing) may be used in making a hazardous waste determination. A hazardous waste determination only needs to be made for materials that have been determined to be a solid waste.

 It is the responsibility of all business owners and other regulated entities to identify the types and quantities of hazardous waste potentially generated by their operations. Trade associations, product suppliers, or product manufacturers may provide information to the generator that assists in identifying hazardous wastes generated by them, but ultimately it is the responsibility of the generator. Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) are also available for most commercial chemical products and may be useful to determine if product wastes may be hazardous.

The hazardous waste determination that a facility makes for its solid waste must be correct, and data used in making this determination must be kept by the facility. In the absence of enough data, a facility may choose to designate its solid waste as hazardous waste, and manage it appropriate under the VHWMR.