Transcript The Waste Management Hierarchy

Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act
• Authorizes EPA to identify hazardous wastes
and regulate their generation, transportation,
treatment, storage and disposal.
• RCRA's goals are to:
– Protect us from the hazards of waste disposal
– Conserve energy and natural resources by recycling
and recovery
– Reduce or eliminate waste, and
– Clean up waste, which may have spilled, leaked, or
been improperly disposed.
Toxic Substances Control Act
(TSCA) of 1976
• Authorizes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) to track the 75,000 industrial chemicals currently
produced or imported into the United States. The EPA
repeatedly screens these chemicals and can require
reporting or testing of those that may pose an
environmental or human-health hazard. EPA can ban the
manufacture and import of those chemicals that pose an
unreasonable risk.
• Requires that EPA be notified of any new chemical prior
to its manufacture and authorizes EPA to regulate
production, use or disposal of a chemical
Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation, and Liability Act (1980)
• Authorizes EPA to designate hazardous
substances that can present substantial
danger and authorizes the cleanup of sites
contaminated with such substances
• CERCLA:
• established prohibitions and requirements concerning closed
and abandoned hazardous waste sites;
• provided for liability of persons responsible for releases of
hazardous waste at these sites; and
• established a trust fund to provide for cleanup when no
responsible party could be identified
Superfund Amendments and
Reauthorization Act (SARA)
• October 17, 1986.
• Expanded to balance with States and
Other Fed. Laws
• Provided new tools
• Encouraged citizen involvement.
Emergency Planning & Community Right to
Know Act (1986)
• Also known as Title III of SARA, EPCRA
was enacted by Congress as the national
legislation on community safety. This law
was designated to help local communities
protect public health, safety, and the
environment from chemical hazards.
Responsible Care
Since 1988, the U.S. chemical industry, through the
American Chemistry Council, has implemented
Responsible Care, a voluntary program to achieve
improvements in environmental, health and safety
performance beyond levels required by the U.S.
government. The program has resulted in significant
reductions in releases to air, land and water, major
improvements in workplace and community safety, and
expanded programs to research and test chemicals for
potential health and environmental impacts.
Pollution Prevention Act
(1990)
• The Pollution Prevention Act focused industry,
government, and public attention on reducing
the amount of pollution through cost-effective
changes in production, operation, and raw
materials use. Opportunities for source reduction
are often not realized because of existing
regulations, and the industrial resources
required for compliance, focus on treatment and
disposal. Source reduction is fundamentally
different and more desirable than waste
management or pollution control.
PPA
The Administrator shall develop and implement a strategy to promote source reduction. As part of the strategy, the Administrator shall—
(1) establish standard methods of measurement of source reduction;
(2) ensure that the Agency considers the effect of its existing and proposed programs on source reduction efforts and shall review regulations of
the Agency prior and subsequent to their proposal to determine their effect on source reduction;
(3) coordinate source reduction activities in each Agency Office and coordinate with appropriate offices to promote source reduction practices in
other Federal agencies, and generic research and development on techniques and processes which have broad applicability;
(4) develop improved methods of coordinating, streamlining and assuring public access to data collected under Federal environmental statutes;
(5) facilitate the adoption of source reduction techniques by businesses. This strategy shall include the use of the Source Reduction
Clearinghouse and State matching grants provided in this chapter to foster the exchange of information regarding source reduction
techniques, the dissemination of such information to businesses, and the provision of technical assistance to businesses. The strategy
shall also consider the capabilities of various businesses to make use of source reduction techniques;
(6) identify, where appropriate, measurable goals which reflect the policy of this chapter, the tasks necessary to achieve the goals, dates at
which the principal tasks are to be accomplished, required resources, organizational responsibilities, and the means by which progress in
meeting the goals will be measured;
(8) establish an advisory panel of technical experts comprised of representatives from industry, the States, and public interest groups, to advise
the Administrator on ways to improve collection and dissemination of data;
(9) establish a training program on source reduction opportunities, including workshops and guidance documents, for State and Federal permit
issuance, enforcement, and inspection officials working within all agency program offices.[3]
(10) identify and make recommendations to Congress to eliminate barriers to source reduction including the use of incentives and disincentives;
(11) identify opportunities to use Federal procurement to encourage source reduction;
(12) develop, test and disseminate model source reduction auditing procedures designed to highlight source reduction opportunities; and
(13) establish an annual award program to recognize a company or companies which operate outstanding or innovative source reduction programs.
The Toxics Release Inventory
• (TRI) is a publicly available EPA database that
contains information on toxic chemical releases
and other waste management activities reported
annually by certain covered industry groups as
well as federal facilities. This inventory was
established under the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA)
and expanded by the Pollution Prevention Act of
1990.
• (site http://www.epa.gov/tri/tridata/tri02/index.htm
)
The Waste Management
Hierarchy
33/50 Program
The 33/50 Program targeted 17 priority chemicals and set
goals of33% reduction in releases and transfers of these
chemicals by 1992 and 50% reduction by 1995,
measured against a 1988 baseline. The first of EPA's
growing series of voluntary programs, its primary
purpose was to demonstrate whether voluntary
partnerships could augment the Agency's traditional
command-and-control approach by bringing about
targeted reductions more quickly than would regulations
alone.
The program also sought to foster a pollution prevention
ethic, encouraging companies to consider and apply
pollution prevention approaches to reducing their
environmental releases rather than traditional end-of-thepipe methods for treating and disposing of chemicals in
waste.