Businesses use many different types of hazardous materials to provide products and services to consumers. All businesses located in Hennepin County that produce hazardous wastes need to be licensed.

Learn more about hazardous waste reduction and pollution prevention. 

To determine if your business generates hazardous waste, you need to understand what is a waste, what is a hazardous waste and then evaluate your business' waste.

What is a waste? 

A waste is a material that you no longer need, want or use; it is something that is unusable or is intended to be discarded, such as spent solvent. 

A waste is not something that you can and will use, such as leftover paint that will be used on another project. 

What is a hazardous waste? 

A waste is either non-hazardous - and exempt from hazardous waste regulations - or hazardous for one of the following reasons: 

  1. It is listed - appears on one of four lists in the Minnesota Hazardous Waste Rules. 
  2. It is characteristic - displays one or more of six hazardous characteristics.
  3. It contains more than 50 parts per million (ppm) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). 

For more information, see examples of hazardous and special wastes.

Evaluating your waste

Minnesota Hazardous Waste Rules require that anyone who produces or manages a waste must carefully examine a waste's characteristics in order to determine whether or not it is hazardous. 

To determine if you business produces hazardous waste, you should:

  1. Gather information about the wastes your business produces. Talk to purchasing, production and maintenance personnel, tour production and non-production areas and inspect storage areas and dumpsters. Don't forget to include sewered and recycled wastes. 
  2. Evaluate the wastes. The evaluation process will include checking to see if any of the wastes are exempt from the hazardous waste rules, determining if any of the wastes are listed in the hazardous waste rules, and determining if any of the wastes display any of the characteristics of hazardous waste. You may need to have the waste tested.
  3. If your business generates hazardous waste, you must obtain a hazardous waste license.