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Waste Management
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| Nearly everything we do leaves behind some kind
of waste. Households create ordinary garbage. Industrial and
manufacturing processes create solid and hazardous waste. The U.S. EPA
regulates all this waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery
Act (RCRA). |
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Overview |
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 The
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), an amendment to the
Solid Waste Disposal Act, was enacted in 1976 to address a problem of
enormous magnitude — the huge volumes of
municipal and industrial solid waste generated nationwide.
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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 of.
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Regulations |
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The legal mechanism that
establishes standards or
imposes requirements as mandated by the Act. RCRA regulations are
promulgated by EPA, published in the Federal Register, and codified
in the Code of Federal Regulations.
The codified RCRA regulations can be found in Title 40
of the CFR, Parts 240-282. These regulations are often cited as
40 CFR, with the part listed afterward (e.g., 40 CFR Part 264), or the
part and section (e.g., 40 CFR
§264.10). |
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Subtitle D — Solid Waste |
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RCRA Subtitle D focuses on state and local governments as the primary
planning, regulating, and implementing entities for the management of
non-hazardous solid waste, such as household garbage and non-hazardous
industrial solid waste. EPA provides these state and local agencies
with information, guidance, policy and regulations through workshops
and publications to help states and the regulated community make
better decisions in dealing with waste issues, to reap the
environmental and economic benefits of source reduction and recycling
of solid wastes, and to require upgrading or closure of all
environmentally unsound disposal units. In order to promote the use
of safer units for solid waste disposal, EPA developed federal
criteria for the proper design and operation of MSWLFs and other solid
waste
disposal facilities. Many states have adopted these criteria into
their state solid waste programs. |
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What is a Solid Waste? |
 The
term solid wastes, including those hazardous wastes that are excluded
from the Subtitle C regulations including not only the traditional
non-hazardous solid wastes, such as municipal garbage, but also some
addresses solid (e.g., household hazardous waste), and exempt small
quantity generators (CESQGs).
• Garbage
• Refuse
• Sludges from waste treatment plants, water supply treatment plants,
or pollution control facilities
• Non-hazardous industrial wastes
• Other discarded materials, including solid, semisolid, liquid, or
contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial,
mining, agricultural, and community activities. |
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Measuring Recycling: A Guide for State and Local Governments |
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 This
guide is designed to help state and local agencies measure municipal
solid waste (MSW) recycling. It contains instructions, definitions,
case studies, tips, forms, and worksheets to help calculate an MSW
recycling rate. Information is provided to help track broad categories
of recycled materials and commodity specific categories, if desired.
All features of the guide, including the survey forms and worksheets,
can be used by both state and local governments that measure
recycling. |
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Municipal Solid Waste in The United States: 2000 Facts and Figures |
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 This
report describes the national municipal solid waste (MSW) stream based
on data collected for 1960 through 2000. The historical perspective is
useful for establishing trends in types of MSW generated and in the
ways it is managed. In this Executive Summary, we briefly describe the
methodology used to characterize MSW in the United States and provide
the latest facts and figures on MSW generation, recycling, and
disposal. In the United States, we generated approximately 231.9
million tons of MSW in 2000— an increase of 0.9 million tons from
1999.* |
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Subtitle C — Hazardous Waste |
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RCRA Subtitle C establishes a federal program to manage hazardous
wastes from cradle to grave. The objective of the Subtitle C program
is to ensure that hazardous waste is handled in a manner that protects
human health and the environment. To this end, there are Subtitle C
regulations for the generation; transportation; and treatment,
storage, or disposal of hazardous wastes. In practical terms, this
means regulating a large number of hazardous waste handlers. As of
1997, EPA had on record more than 2,000 treatment, storage, and
disposal facilities (TSDFs); 18,000 transporters; and about 20,000
large quantity generators. |
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more info |
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Occupational Safety and Health Guidance Manual for Hazardous Waste
Site Activities |
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This manual is a guidance document for managers responsible for
occupational safety and health programs at inactive hazardous waste
sites. It assumes a basic knowledge of science and experience in
occupational safety and health. It is the product of a four-agency
committee (the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
[NIOSH], the Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA], the
U.S. Coast Guard [USCG], and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
[EPA]) mandated by CERCLA section 301(f) to study the problem of
protecting the safety and health of workers at hazardous waste sites,
and by CERCLA section 111(c)(6) to develop a program to protect the
health and safety of employees involved in response to hazardous
substance releases, removals, or remedial actions.
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Subtitle I — Underground Storage Tanks |
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Across the United States, there are approximately 700,000 federally
regulated underground storage tanks (USTs) that store petroleum or
certain hazardous substances. USTs are found at a variety of
locations,
including convenience stores, airports, service stations, small and
large manufacturing facilities, and hazardous waste management
facilities. Some USTs installed before 1988 were constructed of bare,
unprotected steel. Because of their underground location, these
tanks pose unique problems in preventing their contents from leaking
due to faulty installation, corrosion, tank or pipe rupture, or
spills. With over 50 percent of the U.S. population relying on
groundwater as their primary source of drinking water, Congress acted
to protect this resource in 1984 by adding Subtitle I to the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Pursuant to this congressional
mandate, EPA established a regulatory program in 1988 that includes
technical requirements to prevent, detect, and clean up releases from
USTs. In addition, EPA created financial responsibility requirements
to guarantee that UST owners and operators have enough money set aside
to clean up releases and to compensate third parties.
RCRA Subtitle I regulates underground storage tanks (USTs) that
contain petroleum or hazardous substances (as defined under CERCLA). A
major objective of Subtitle I is to prevent and clean up releases from
tanks. Under Subtitle I, EPA has developed performance standards for
new tanks, upgrading requirements for existing tanks, and regulations
to prevent, detect, and clean up releases at all UST sites. This
program is similar to the Subtitle C program in that state programs
may be approved to operate in lieu of the federal program. |
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Introduction to: Underground Storage Tanks: RCRA Subtitle I
(40 CFR Part 280) |
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 This
publication is designed to familiarize you with the universe of
regulated USTs, and the technical and financial requirements that
apply to them. After reading this module, you should be able to:
• Define UST and UST system
• Identify which USTs are subject to regulation
• Determine performance and operating requirements
• Discuss such topics as historical deadlines for upgrading tanks and
the closure and
corrective action requirements
• Summarize the financial responsibility requirements for petroleum
USTs. |
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