e-Manifest Terminology

Regulation and Governments

EPA / US EPA

  • EPA and/or US EPA refers to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the primary federal environmental regulator in the United States of America. www.epa.gov

Region

State

  • State commonly refers to the primary environmental agency of a given US state, such as the New York Department of Conservation, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, or the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

RCRA / Subtitle C

  • The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is the primary United States federal law that governs solid and hazardous waste. Subtitle C of RCRA addresses hazardous waste and is the framework for the nation’s "cradle-to-grave" management program from its generation to treatment, storage, or disposal. EPA: About RCRA

Hazardous Waste

  • Hazardous waste is waste with properties that make it dangerous or capable of having a harmful effect on human health or the environment. EPA: About Hazardous Waste

Parties to the Manifest

Handler

  • A handler represents the hazardous waste operations of an entity (such as a person, company, or government) at a fixed location.

Site

  • A site is a fixed location at which hazardous waste activity is conducted. It may also be called a facility.

Site ID

  • Handlers are assigned a twelve-character alphanumeric Site ID by the State or EPA. They start with a two-letter prefix representing the State or Region that assigned them. They are unique to the site. Some states may issue site IDs unique to each handler. EPA: About Site IDs

Generator

  • A generator is the handler that produced the hazardous waste. There is only one generator per manifest. EPA: About Generators

Transporter

  • A transporter is a handler that moves the hazardous waste to the TSDF. There may be multiple transporters on a manifest. EPA: About Transporters

Broker

  • A broker is a handler that prepares a manifest and the shipment on behalf of other handler customers.

Treatment, Storage, or Disposal Facility (TSDF) / Receiving Facility / Designated Facility

  • A TSDF, also known as a Receiving Facility or the Designated Facility, is the handler to whom the hazardous waste is shipped. They are responsible for treating, storing, or disposing of the waste according to state and federal law. The terms designated receiving facility, TSD, TSDF are interchangeable EPA: About Permitted TSDFs

Alternate Facility

  • In certain cases, the TSDF listed on the manifest cannot accept the shipment of waste. The shipment may be sent to an Alternate TSDF according to state and federal law.

Technology

RCRAInfo

  • RCRAInfo is the web application used by EPA, states, and industry to report and track RCRA-regulated hazardous waste activity. RCRAInfo.epa.gov

e-Manifest

  • e-Manifest is the national program used to facilitate the transmission and record keeping of the uniform manifest form, which accompanies shipments of hazardous waste. The technical elements of e-Manifest are housed within RCRAInfo. EPA: e-Manifest

Services

  • Services refer to the e-Manifest Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) developed and maintained by the EPA. Services Documentation

The Manifest

The Uniform Manifest Form

  • The manifest is a standard EPA form that accompanies a shipment of hazardous waste, detailing the location and identity of the generator, transporter(s), and TSDF, the type of waste(s), what will happen to the waste at its destination, and when custody was exchanged along the route. The manifest was previously exclusively a multipart paper document, but it can now be completed electronically. At the conclusion of a shipment, the manifest information must be provided to EPA via RCRAInfo’s e-Manifest module.

Waste Line

  • A waste line is a listing on the manifest of the type of waste, its volume or weight, the type of container it occupies, and its waste codes. Each manifest will have at least one waste line.

Waste Code

  • Each waste line is labeled with waste codes, which are four-character alphanumeric values noting the type of waste or its hazardous characteristics. Waste codes can be issued by state or federal regulation. [EPA: Defining Hazardous Waste] https://www.epa.gov/hw/defining-hazardous-waste-listed-characteristic-and-mixed-radiological-wastes)

Management Method

  • The management method is a four-character alphanumeric value noting the process by which the TSDF will treat, store, or dispose of the waste on the manifest. Each waste line will have a management method code.

Rejection

  • Rejection is the process of a TSDF refusing to accept a shipment of waste and that waste being sent to either an alternate facility or back to the generator. It may be in whole or in part.

Where to go to learn more:

For more up-to-date information on e-Manifest, visit https://www.epa.gov/e-manifest