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HazWasteOnline is a web-based classification tool developed by One Touch Data Ltd for classifying potentially hazardous waste materials as either hazardous or non hazardous according to the most recent European regulations and Environment Agency guidelines. It is used by waste producers, consultants, waste receivers and government agencies to classify waste materials.

The system comprises an analysis and reporting web front-end, a calculation engine to model the regulations and a database to save the contaminants inputted and reports generated. The system is fully auditable and transparent and is provided through the software as a service business model.

Regulatory Environment
The revised Waste Framework Directive (rWFD) is the primary legislative framework for the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste across Europe. At the heart of this framework is the waste hierarchy which defines the priority order for waste prevention, legislation and policy:
 * Prevention
 * Preparing for re-use
 * Recycling
 * Other recovery - including energy recovery
 * Disposal

The waste hierarchy must be considered and applied in priority order when hazardous waste is transferred.

The rWFD provides a definition of hazardous waste and requires the correct management and regulation of this waste. The starting point is for waste producers to identify which of their wastes materials are hazardous. Examples of wastes that might be hazardous include contaminated soils, filter cakes and sludge.

Hazardous waste is defined as a waste which displays one or more of the fifteen hazardous properties listed in Annex III of the rWFD:


 * H1 Explosive
 * H2 Oxidising
 * H3 Flammable
 * H4 Irritant
 * H5 Harmful
 * H6 Toxic
 * H7 Carcinogenic
 * H8 Corrosive
 * H9 Infectious
 * H10 Toxic for Reproduction
 * H11 Mutagenic
 * H12 ... release toxic gases...
 * H13 Sensitizing
 * H14 Ecotoxic
 * H15 ... yield another substance after disposal...

The rWFD also details a list of waste codes in a document called the European Waste Catalogue (EWC). This document contains sets of six digit waste codes grouped into 20 chapters; each chapter is based on the particular source that generated the waste or upon the type of waste. For example, Chapter 17 covers construction and demolition wastes including excavated soil from contaminated sites.

Certain waste codes in the EWC are marked with a (*) which indicates that they have to be considered as hazardous wastes. Some of these wastes, called Absolute Entries are hazardous without reference to the concentrations of specific or general dangerous substances within them and are shown in red in the EWC. Other wastes, called Mirror Entries and shown in blue in the EWC, have the potential to be hazardous, depending on whether they contain minimum concentrations of dangerous substances such that the waste presents one of more of the 15 hazard properties listed above.

Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008: Classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP Regulation) incorporates the classification criteria. In particular Annex VI, Table 3.2 contains the approved information for the classification of dangerous substances.

The CLP Regulation has since been amended by three Adaptations to Technical Progress (ATP). The key changes introduced by these ATPs and relating directly to HazWasteOnline and waste classification are:
 * ATP 1 - modified, added or removed data concerning approximately five hundred substances managed by Annex VI, Table 3.2 of the CLP Regulation
 * ATP 2 - introduced Hazard Property H13 Sensitizing and removed reference to Note H in Annex VI Table 3.2 of the CLP Regulation
 * ATP 3 - modified, added or removed data concerning sixteen substances managed by Annex VI, Table 3.2 of the CLP Regulation

The Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency jointly published a technical guidance document called Technical Guidance WM2: Interpretation and definition of hazardous waste which brings together the data in the CLP and the EWC and provides detailed instructions on how to classify hazardous waste in the UK.

While classifications can be done by hand or via custom built spreadsheets, these approaches are time consuming, difficult to maintain and audit. The introduction of HazWasteOnline in 2010, allowed users to concentrate on what is in the waste rather than how to carry out the calculations.

History
A basic edition of HazWasteOnline was released in April 2010 to test the market. This version contained a single waste stream template with approximately 80 substances and species suitable for the classification of contaminated soils (17 05 03* and 17 05 04). This edition was superseded by the release of the Professional Edition in September 2010 which contained all 4000 plus substances from both Table 3.2 of the CLP regulation and ATP 1 and all 20 chapters of the EWC.

A basic Enterprise Edition was released in May 2012. This edition allows waste producers to invite third party's to review a particular waste package (classification and supporting documentation), either for internal review purposes or for passing it down the waste management chain and on to the waste receiver. The key objective is that the data are entered once by the waste producer and then reviewed in turn by other users.

In September, 2012, an Irish version of the WM2 engine was released that included an extra rule that allows users to classify waste materials contaminated by PCBs.