According to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, any waste or combination of wastes which pose a substantial, present or potential, hazard to human health or living organisms because such wastes are non-degradable or persistent in nature or because they can be biologically magnified, or because they can be lethal, or because they may otherwise cause or tend to cause detrimental cumulative effects.

Hazardous (Chemical) Waste at the University of Virginia may include but is not limited to the following:

• Unwanted and expired chemicals.
• Waste from laboratory processes.
• Waste from maintenance processes.
• Waste from landscaping and turf management processes (e.g. fertilizers and pesticides).
• Waste from construction processes.
• Aerosol cans, fluorescent light bulbs, and ballasts.
• Damaged/defective batteries (e.g., lithium, lithium-ion).