Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) laws and regulations · RCRA technical assistance and community participation program · Development of final standards. Solid waste policy in the United States aims to develop and implement appropriate mechanisms to effectively manage solid waste. For solid waste policy to be effective, inputs must come from stakeholders, including citizens, businesses, community organizations, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, universities and other research organizations. These inputs form the basis for the political frameworks that influence solid waste management decisions.
In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates household, industrial, manufacturing and commercial solid and hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976. Effective solid waste management is a cooperative effort involving federal, state, regional and local entities. Therefore, section D of the RCRA's solid waste program encourages environmental departments in each state to develop comprehensive plans to manage non-hazardous industrial and municipal solid waste. Each state will have different methods on how to educate and control the flow of waste. Solid waste means any garbage or garbage, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, a water supply treatment plant, or a facility for controlling air pollution and other discarded materials, including contained solid, liquid, semi-solid or gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and community activities. Solid waste does not include solid or dissolved materials in domestic wastewater, solid or dissolved materials in return flows from irrigation or industrial discharges.
The broad scope of the term solid waste means that it must be managed in a variety of ways and that different levels of government use different political instruments to carry out this task. Generally, the term solid waste refers to non-hazardous waste, although under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and other state regulations, hazardous waste is also part of solid waste. Some of the main problems associated with waste are outdoor discharges, odors, particle emissions, leachate filtration from landfills, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that cause air pollution, surface and ground water pollution, food chain pollution, depletion of the Earth's surface, impacts on human health, environmental degradation and negative impacts on plant and animal life. The government has at its disposal a wide variety of different political tools to choose from. Because of the diverse nature of solid waste, the government employs a number of different policy tools at various levels to ensure the efficient and safe handling and disposal of different types of waste, as well as to encourage recycling and the reduction of sources.
The following is a sample of the tools that the United States government employs in relation to solid waste. It has also launched the challenge of increasing recycling to cover 35% of the country's municipal solid waste. EPA's other three approaches are the recycling of electronic products, the recycling of industrial materials, and the reduction of toxic and priority chemicals. These challenges and goals are supported by voluntary associations and programs.
Solid waste management challenges and issues that must be considered when developing solid waste policy include appropriate methods of waste generation, segregation, collection, transport and disposal, landfill management, management of hazardous materials and other toxic materials, treatment, incineration, recycling and other technological standards, and methods of monitoring, evaluation and continuous improvement. In addition to these issues, policies must address short- and long-term economic, environmental and social costs and benefits, funding methods, and the roles of diverse stakeholders. The Water Pollution Control Act, referred to in the subparagraph. B) (, probably means law of June 30, 1948, cap. For a full classification of this Act in the Code, see the abbreviated title note in section 1251 of title 33 and the tables.
Potential hazard, if any, to human health and the environment resulting from the disposal and reuse of such materials;. The Administrator will carry out a systematic study of the composition of the solid waste stream and of the expected future changes in the composition of that flow and will publish a report containing the results of that study and will evaluate quantitatively the possible usefulness of these components. The Secretary of Commerce, through the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and in collaboration with national organizations that establish standards for resource recovery, will publish, after public hearings and no later than two years after September 1, 1979, guidelines for the development of specifications for the classification of materials recovered from waste destined for disposal. C) the persistence, toxicity, mobility and propensity to bioaccumulate of such hazardous wastes and their hazardous components.
B) train instructors and supervisory staff to train or supervise individuals in occupations related to the design, operation and maintenance of solid waste management and resource recovery equipment and facilitiesA. No later than eighteen months after October 21, 1976, and after notification and the opportunity of a public hearing, the Administrator shall enact a regulation identifying the characteristics of hazardous wastes and listing particular hazardous wastes (within the meaning of section 6903 (of this title), which shall be subject to the provisions of this subchapter. With respect to waste oil generators and transporters identified or listed as hazardous waste in section 6921 of this title, the standards enacted in sections 1 6921 (d), 6922 and 6923 of this title will not apply to such used oil if such used oil is recycled. B) identify all barriers in procurement requirements to achieve greater energy savings and environmental benefits, including barriers that result from exceptions to the law; and.
The EPA's RCRA CETA program helps communities address their concerns about environmental and health issues related to waste management by providing them with access to support, resources and Information. The extent to which such wastes have been released or can be released from such lagoons and contaminate groundwater; y. vi) access to consumer educational materials that states, indigenous tribes and local government units can adapt and use in recycling programs; and. B) the rules applicable to owners and operators of facilities that burn, for energy recovery purposes, any fuel produced as provided in subparagraph (A) or any fuel containing any hazardous waste identified or listed in section 6921 of this title; and.
When there is an international agreement between the United States and the government of the receiving country that establishes notification, export, and compliance procedures for the transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous wastes, only the requirements of subsections (a) (and (g) apply. What types of solid waste (including, but not limited to, wastewater and pollution treatment waste and other wastes from industrial operations, such as oil extraction from oil shale, liquefaction and gasification from coal oil pipeline operations and coal sludge) will be classified as sludge;. Such teams will include technical, marketing, financial and institutional specialists, and the services of such teams will be provided free of charge to state or local governments. D) the appropriateness and viability of employing as a resource conservation strategy the imposition of solid waste management charges on consumer products, charges that would reflect the costs of solid waste management services, garbage collection, the value of the recoverable components of said product, final disposal and any social value associated with the non-recycling or uncontrolled disposal of said product; and.
