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ASTM Committee D34 on Waste Management was formed in 1980. D34 meets twice a year, usually in March and October, with about 20 members attending three days of technical meetings. The Committee maintains close liaison with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as a result of a cooperative agreement between the USEPA and the Committee for the development of waste management standards. D34, with a membership of approximately 270 industry professionals and experts, currently has jurisdiction over 125 standards published in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Volume 11.04. D34 has 12 technical subcommittees and subsections that maintain these standards. Information on this subcommittee structure and D34’s portfolio of approved standards and Work Items under development is available from the List of Subcommittees, Standards, and Work Items. These standards have, and continue to play, a preeminent role in all aspects addressing the generation, storage, transportation, treatment, recovery, and disposal of wastes generated from industrial, commercial, residential, and institutional sources. ACTIVITIES, PRODUCTS, AND SERVICES The technical subcommittees of D34 collectively encompass three primary areas: (1) sampling, monitoring, and characterization, (2) treatment, recovery, and reuse, and (3) site remediation. The area of sampling, monitoring, and characterization is further divided into six key areas to support sampling planning and execution. These areas are planning for sampling, sampling techniques, sampling equipment, waste leaching techniques, screening methods, and analytical methods. The areas include guidance through test methods, practices, specifications, nomenclature, classifications, and definitions related to (1) sampling and monitoring of solid wastes and obtaining samples of ground water, or leachate, from waste; providing for standards activities that include monitoring practices and sample preservation, transportation, and disposal; and (2) the characteristics and behavior of discard materials in the environment; providing for standards activities that include the development of batch extraction of methods; column extraction methods; analytical methods for the analysis of waste materials, extracts, leachates, and groundwater samples; physical and chemical testing methods for waste; prediction methods; and field verification techniques. The area of treatment, recovery, and reuse focuses on the development of test methods, practices, performance criteria, specifications nomenclature, classifications, and definitions related to (1) the treatment of waste, which includes fixation (solidification, physical) chemical processes, thermal treatment, land application, and biological systems; (2) materials, recoverable or potentially recoverable from waste, where waste is defined as that portion of waste which is collected from industrial, commercial, or household sources and destined for recovery and/or disposal facilities; and (3) the management of municipal solid waste (MSW), including, but not limited to, the generation and collection of MSW; operation and siting of facilities; and guidance relating to MSW programs. Finally, standards overseen by the site remediation group relate to the investigation, monitoring, interim response, remedial design, and remedial action undertaken at sites of contamination. These actions are to correct, eliminate, control, or manage risk associated with the release of contaminants to the environment. Overall, the work of the Committee has promulgated more than 120 standards and numerous industry-critical publications, including ASTM Standards on Environmental Site Characterization, Manual 42: RCRA Waste Management: Planning, Implementation, and Assessment of Sampling Activities, and the compilation ASTM Standards on Environmental Sampling. For a list of available D34 publications, click here. At any given time, D34 has several ongoing standards activities. Some recent and ongoing development activities include a test method for screening soil for trichloroethylene using a heated diode sensor, a practice for sampling waste streams on conveyers, and a guide for combining ranked set sampling and composite sampling for the estimation of a population mean concentration in environmental sampling. PARTICIPATING AS A MEMBER ON THE COMMITTEE ASTM International opens its doors to all technical experts with an interest in the standardization process. As a member of ASTM Committee D34, you will be exposed to the robust resources and member benefits included below that have helped make ASTM a worldwide standards development leader for more than a century:
STAKEHOLDERS The Committee is largely composed of producers, practitioners, regulators, associations, and consumers. Producers are generally those individuals or companies that manufacture products in any given standardization area addressed by the Committee. This may include the design and manufacture of sampling equipment or the management of wastes as a core business. Regulators include any representative from a government agency such members of national bodies from several countries and USEPA. These stakeholders are particularly important to the forum as they are often the largest user of standards and they usually represent entities to which the industry looks for guidance and for information on product acceptance. Users may include various providers of services, such as consultants that provide sampling or statistical services. Additionally, such organizations as the Rubber Manufacturer’s Association participate in D34 as a forum for specialized standards needs such as the recycling of scrap tires. Finally, there are general interest members as well who are usually members from academia engaged in research using D34 methods RELATIONSHIP WITH INDUSTRY, GOVERNMENT, AND REGULATION D34 standards are used as the basis for regulation in many countries in North and South America, the Middle East, and China. The documents are critical to the health and safety of the general population as a means to evaluate the contamination of environmental media. Regulations typically reference D34 standards as acceptable methods of test, material specifications, and/or operational guidance required for compliance. Particularly in the case of environmental sampling, monitoring, and characterization, a manufacturer’s or service provider’s declaration of conforming to standards recognized by the regulating agency (usually USEPA) can accelerate the acceptance and use of their product, because it is presumed to conform to the law/regulation that references the standard. If a manufacturer states that a product has been manufactured in accordance with standards cited in regulation, when in fact the product does not conform, then the result is often serious legal penalties. LINKS AND INFORMATION The following websites have been identified by Committee D34 to contain information of interest. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov |