In 1976, Congress determined that population growth in the United States along with advances in technology, industry, and agriculture were resulting in a "rising tide of scrap, discarded, and waste materials." Congress further determined that the rapidly growing amount of waste was applying increasing financial and logistical pressures on communities to effectively manage and dispose of it. Congress also found that the increase in the amount of waste was having a negative impact on both public health and the environment. Moreover, refuse disposal involved a waste of resources that might be reused and consumed valuable land that could be put to better uses. While recognizing that solid waste disposal was properly the primary function of state and local agencies, Congress concluded that waste disposal problems had reached such magnitudes as to necessitate federal intervention. As a result of its findings, Congress enacted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
The stated objectives of the RCRA are to protect the public health and environment, to conserve energy and natural resources by recovering usable parts of waste material, and to reduce the amount of waste, thereby decreasing demand on waste disposal systems. The RCRA also created the Office of Solid Waste within the Environmental Protection Agency and placed it in charge of carrying out the objectives of the RCRA. For the purposes of federal law, solid waste is defined as ordinary garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant and other discarded materials, including those resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, agricultural, and community activities. It specifically excludes untreated sewage, radioactive waste, and industrial discharges that are governed by other federal laws.
The Office of Solid Waste (OSW) works with states to assist them in formulating and carrying out their own waste management programs and with industry and other groups involved in or concerned about waste management and the environment. The OSW works to set goals, policies, and priorities regarding waste disposal, promotes education about waste management and the environment, and promulgates appropriate regulations. The OSW promotes certain waste management methods, including ways to reduce the amount or toxicity of waste created; recycling, which both reduces demand on landfills and conserves resources; landfills; and waste combustion, which provides a potential energy source.
In addition to ordinary non-hazardous household and industrial waste, the OSW has authority to control every aspect of hazardous waste from its creation and to its ultimate disposal, including transportation, treatment, and storage. The OSW is also responsible for cleaning up leaks or spills from OSW-regulated storage, treatment, or disposal facilities. This type of activity applies only to active sites and should not be confused with Superfund site cleanup, which is a function of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA, and applies to abandoned industrial hazardous waste dumping sites.
In recognition of congressional findings that waste disposal management is primarily the responsibility of state and local agencies, the RCRA allows the EPA to authorize states to operate their own hazardous waste management programs. In order to qualify for the EPA delegation of primary responsibility to implement hazardous waste programs mandated by the RCRA, state hazardous waste management programs must be as stringent or more stringent than federal program requirements. This ensures that national minimum standards are maintained while allowing states to craft waste management plans that suit their own needs.
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