Hazardous Wastes: Standards and Regulations
Authors: Santoleri Joseph J. 
Published: July 2015

The emergence of hazardous waste as a major environmental issue has forced the society to reexamine the ultimate ends of the whole pollution control enterprise. The hazardous waste problem is a by‐product of this nation's rapid economic growth over the past 50 or 60 years. As the industry has expanded, we have developed more and more reliance on a broader range of chemicals and chemical by‐products in plastics, automobiles, and other major manufacturing sectors. When chemicals are used to develop new products, however, wastes are generated, and unfortunately, the phenomenal growth in the production of waste was not mirrored by the growth in the field of waste management. Much of the waste produced made its way into the environment where it poses a serious threat to ecological systems and public health. It was not until the mid‐1970s that Congress enacted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (
RCRA
), the first major hazardous waste regulatory document to address waste generation and disposal effectively.

This article is organized in a historical manner. In Section 2, waste legislation before the
RCRA
of 1976—what little there was—is discussed. Section 3 examines the 1976
RCRA
with particular emphasis on Subtitle C of the act, which lays the groundwork for the current standards and regulations pertaining to the management of hazardous waste. In Section 4, the 1984 Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments (
HSWA
) to the
RCRA
, also known as the
New

RCRA

, are discussed. Along with key elements of the amendments, a discussion of Subtitle 1, which expands the regulation domain of Subtitle C, is included. Section 5 covers the permitting process for incinerators, treatment/storage tanks, and land treatment, with special emphasis on incinerators.

Section 6 covers more recent activities by
EPA
in assisting and expediting the permit processes for incinerators and other hazardous waste combustors including concerns regarding emissions of toxic metals, hydrogen chloride, and chlorine and their control, control of
PICs
, and measurement techniques for all emissions of concern. Section 7 covers the release and implementation of the boiler and industrial furnace regulations. Section 8 covers the
US EPA
Hazardous Waste Reduction and Combustion Strategy in the 1993–1994 era with the change of administration in Washington. Included in this section are the activities initiated by the
US EPA
with the moratorium on new incinerator construction followed by public meetings in February and November 1993 to openly discuss waste minimization and eventually issuance of the maximum achievable control technology (
MACT
) rules for combustion of hazardous wastes in incinerators, cement kilns, and lightweight aggregate kilns. Section 9 discusses the Combustion Emissions Technical Resources Document (
CETRED
), issued in May 1994. Section 10 covers the
MACT
rules initially introduced in April 1996, with many reviews by industry, industrial associations, peer review groups, and public groups, with final approval by the Office of Management and Budget (
OMB
) and release in final form in August 1999.