Special waste is a relatively new concern of environmental engineers. For years, the necessary by-products of an industrialized society were piled “out back” on land that had little value. As time passed and the rains came and went, the migration of harmful chemicals moved hazardous waste to the front page of the newspaper and into the classroom. Engineers employed in all public and private sectors must now face head-on the processing, transportation, and disposal of these wastes. Hazardous waste must be appropriately addressed at the “front end” of the generation process, either by maximizing resource recovery or by detoxification at the site of generation. In Minnesota, for example, the problem of household hazardous wastes are being handled in permanent, regional collection centers, replacing once-a-day drop-off programs common throughout the United States(Ailbmann 1991). Storage, landfilling in particular, is at best a last resort measure for hazardous waste handling.