What is the legislative history of waste management?
The Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965 was the first law to require safeguards and encourage environmentally sound disposal methods for household, municipal, commercial, and industrial refuse. Congress amended this law in 1970 to establish the Resource Recovery Act, and again in 1976, to establish the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). This statute represents Congress’s intent for the design and implementation of the programs regulating hazardous and solid waste. Congress revised RCRA in 1980 and 1984. The 1984 amendments, the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments, significantly expanded the scope of RCRA. The amendment: 1) established a program to manage hazardous waste from generation to disposal, including the cleanup of sites contaminated by hazardous waste and other releases and 2) established a program to manage primarily nonhazardous waste such as household waste. Through the Land Research Program, EPA conducts research to support the Superfund Program which was establi
