How Are You Protected?
Virtually every consumer product we purchase creates some type of hazardous waste during its production. In fact, American industry creates 280 million tons of hazardous waste every year. That's six drums of waste material per every man, woman and child. Congress directed the Environment Protection Agency to establish regulations for the handling and management of these toxic wastes.
What Laws Govern The Handling, Disposal and Treatment of Hazardous Wastes?
Two federal statutes, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, better known as Superfund, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act govern the handling, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes.
Superfund requires those companies responsible for past disposal of hazardous waste to clean up the contamination to protect public health and the environment. Over 1300 sites in the United States are classified as Superfund sites. The ETC concentrates on Superfund issues that concern technologies for the clean up of the waste--often called the remedy issues. Superfund has a preference for treatment that achieves permanent solutions to provide long-term protection. In the legistrative debates over possible changes to the Superfund law, the ETC has supported retaining this stationary preference for treatment of wastes to assure permanent solutions.
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), has established a national program for the proper management of hazardous waste from "cradle to grave." RCRA required the cleanup of old dumps, modernized landfills and incinerators, and made American business better aware of improved recycling, treatment and disposal practices. Congress enacted important amendments in 1984 which require EPA to assure that land disposal practices, particularly the disposal of hazardous chemicals, would not threaten the nation's valuable groundwater and surface water resources or threaten the air we breathe. ETC-member companies operate under the strict requirements of RCRA and comparable state laws. ETC supports strong implementation of our nation's environmental laws so that our neighbors will know that our important and critical environmental work is an asset to the community.