Wastes and Toxics

ERG provides a full suite of services to help clients design, implement, and assess strategies and programs to prevent, reduce, and manage wastes and toxic releases. Our engineers and scientists characterize solid and hazardous wastes, conduct solid waste audits, and evaluate diverse technologies to inform site-specific remediation strategies. Their cutting-edge research and technical support on emerging issues includes PFAS investigations in all media and substrates. They also evaluate industrial processes and products to identify toxic releases and associated human and environmental exposures. To help clients understand options for reducing the volume and toxicity of waste streams, our engineers and life cycle analysts assess alternative manufacturing processes; identify green engineering, green chemistry, and treatment technology options; and evaluate recycling and end-of-life management strategies. Complementing this work, ERG program development and outreach specialists support government agencies in designing, implementing, and managing voluntary green purchasing, recycling, and waste reduction programs. For clients interested in understanding the value of regulatory or voluntary efforts, ERG economists evaluate the cost-benefit of waste or toxics management, reduction, and prevention programs.

Hazardous Waste
  • Hazardous waste characterization
  • Evaluation of hazardous waste treatment technologies
  • Pollution prevention assessments and feasibility studies
  • Identification of emerging hazardous waste issues and trends
  • Risk-based targeting at the sector and facility level
  • Hazardous waste regulatory development and analysis
  • Waste management guidance and training
  • Hazardous waste program evaluation
  • Groundwater research 
Solid Waste
  • Solid waste characterization and waste flow assessments
  • Life cycle analyses
  • End-of-life management evaluations
  • Solid waste audits
  • Recycling program design and implementation
  • Outreach, promotion, and education
  • Data analysis, performance metrics, and tracking
Toxic Substances
  • Industrial process analysis
  • Identification of chemical releases and occupational exposures
  • Chemical release modeling
  • Exposure assessments and modeling
  • Fate and transport assessments and modeling
  • Screening-level risk assessments
  • Risk and hazard ranking tool development
  • Green engineering, green chemistry, and Design for the Environment (DfE) analyses
  • Economic assessment of supply chains associated with chemical manufacturing, processing, and use
  • Market data collection and analysis

Service Area Leads

Shanika Amarakoon

As an immigrant, issues of race, equity, and inclusion have always been central to my lived experience and values. As an environmental engineer and policy analyst, I feel grateful to align my convictions with my experience and to lead ERG’s environmental and climate justice solutions practice.

Shanika Amarakoon

Photo of Susan Day

I always appreciate when our government clients ask us to help them quantify the benefits and costs of actions they are considering. The more complex assignments, such as accurately characterizing behavioral changes under multiple compliance scenarios, put a premium on our creativity and experience.

Susan Day

Photo of Cheryl Keenan

Sustainability has been a central theme throughout my career. As an engineer, I particularly enjoy crafting approaches and tools to efficiently reduce chemical and energy inputs, guided by lessons learned from sustainability initiatives worldwide.

Cheryl Keenan

Dena Krichinsky

Each year, Americans generate millions of tons of waste and consume increasing amounts of resources. Educating and helping the public and organizations learn how they can reduce, reuse, and recycle has been a major focus of my career. I take great satisfaction in applying my extensive waste reduction knowledge to help my clients design and implement strategies to reduce the impact that waste has on the U.S. environment.

Dena Krichinsky

Photo of Joy Onasch

I am driven to apply pragmatic, preventive approaches to preserve and protect our environment for the next generation. I enjoy seeing project results that lead to improved worker health and safety and a cleaner environment.

Joy Onasch

Kurt Rindfusz

Bringing regulators and the regulated community together, educating them on each other’s concerns, and helping to find environmentally preferable and economically feasible solutions is one of the most enjoyable parts of my work.

Kurt Rindfusz

Photo of Jason Rose

Until recently, we have too often taken an “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” approach to waste disposal and overlooked the connection between surface and ground water, leading to contamination and depletion of both. We have to climb out of this history of environmental exploitation to a path of sustainability. I enjoy all my work to help get us there, including groundwater remediation, reducing sanitary sewer overflows, ensuring proper operation of injection wells, aquifer storage and recovery systems, and design of new water production wells.

Jason Rose

Joe Watson

I find that field work is the best way to understand compliance issues. By seeing process operations firsthand, we can help EPA get to the root of issues and support the agency in determining the best ways to minimize waste generation and disposal across industrial sectors.

Joe Watson