Resource Conservation And Recovery Act

RCRA (pronounced "rick-rah") gave EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from the "cradle-to-grave." This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA also set forth a framework for the management of non-hazardous wastes.

The 1986 amendments to RCRA enabled EPA to address environmental problems that could result from underground tanks storing petroleum and other hazardous substances. RCRA focuses only on active and future facilities and does not address abandoned or historical sites (see CERCLA).

HSWA (pronounced "hiss-wa")—The Federal Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments are the 1984 amendments to RCRA that required phasing out land disposal of hazardous waste. Some of the other mandates of this strict law include increased enforcement authority for EPA, more stringent hazardous waste management standards, and a comprehensive underground storage tank program.

The full text version of this law is hosted by Cornell University.  This collection was generated from the most recent version of the Government Printing Office CD-ROM. The Government Printing Office  maintains the official government version of the laws through the GPO Access database structure.

The U.S. Code is the official record of all federal laws and contains the general and permanent laws of the United States. The most recent version of the U.S. Code released in electronic form contains the laws in effect as of January 16, 1996. For more recent laws, please see the uncompelled Public Laws as passed by Congress available through the Thomas Legislative Information Web site.

Purpose and Organization

RCRA is designed to:

1.        protect human health and the environment

2.        reduce or eliminate the generation of hazardous wastes, and

3.        conserve energy and natural resources.

RCRA, as amended, contains ten subtitles. Subtitle C, Hazardous Waste Management; Subtitle D, State or Regional Solid Waste Plans; Subtitle I, Regulation of Underground Storage Tanks; and Subtitle J, Demonstration Medical Waste Tracking Program; constitute the regulatory portion of the law. The other subtitles provide the legal and administrative structure for achieving the objectives of the law.

EPA, the Department of Commerce (DOC), DOE, and the Department of the Interior (DOI) each have specific responsibilities under RCRA. EPA issues guidelines and regulations for proper management of solid and hazardous wastes, oversees and approves the development of state waste management plans, and provides financial aid to agencies and firms for research on solid waste. DOC encourages greater commercialization of proven resource recovery technologies. DOE oversees activities involving research and development of new techniques for producing energy from wastes. DOI oversees mineral waste problems, including recovery of metals and minerals and methods for stabilizing mining wastes.