Published: 1991
Total Pages: 28
Get eBook
The Department of Defense has made a commitment to reduce the amount of hazardous waste generated at maintenance depots to 50 percent of 1985 levels by 1992. However, two major conditions hamper its effort to assess progress to date. First, DoD believes that the availability and accuracy of waste generation data are limited, and second, DoD's maintenance workload has declined, and DoD is not able to determine with certainty whether reported decreases in hazardous waste generation merely reflect that decline. We studied current reporting processes for workload and waste generation and visited a major Army depot to verify our findings. We conclude that DoD collects enough data to support both hazardous waste measurement system and appropriate workload-based adjustments. Waste should be measured by weight and indexed-that is, adjusted to account for workload changes - based on direct-labor hours. However, the data definitions and collection cycles need to be made consistent across all DoD activities. We found that the data for a single installation can fluctuate widely from year to year as a result of large disposals, transportation contract lapses, or regulatory interventions, among other causes. We conclude that focusing on changes to the waste patterns over a short term for a single installation would be misleading.