Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

Other short titles	Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976
Long title	An Act to provide technical and financial assistance for the development of management plans and facilities for the recovery of energy and other resources from discarded materials and for the safe disposal of discarded materials, and to regulate the management of hazardous waste.
Acronyms (colloquial)	RCRA
Nicknames	Solid Waste Utilization Act
Enacted by	the 94th United States Congress
Effective	October 21, 1976
Citations
Public law	94-580
Statutes at Large	90 Stat. 2795
Codification
Acts amended	Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965
Titles amended	42 U.S.C.: Public Health and Social Welfare
U.S.C. sections created	42 U.S.C. ch. 82 § 6901 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 2150 by Jennings Randolph (D–WV) on July 21, 1975 Committee consideration by Senate Public Works Committee; House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee Passed the Senate on June 30, 1976 (88-3) Passed the House on September 27, 1976 (367-8, in lieu of H.R. 14496) with amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on September 30, 1976 (agreed) Signed into law by President Gerald Ford on October 21, 1976

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976, is the principal federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.

Congress enacted RCRA to address the increasing problems the nation faced from its growing volume of municipal and industrial waste. RCRA amended the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965. It set national goals for:

It is now most widely known for the regulations promulgated under RCRA that set standards for the treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous waste in the United States.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published waste management regulations, which are codified in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations at parts 239 through 282. Regulations regarding management of hazardous waste begin in part 260. As noted below, most states have enacted laws and created regulations that are at least as stringent as the federal regulations. Furthermore, the RCRA statute authorizes states to carry out many of the functions of the federal law through their own hazardous waste programs (as well as their state laws) if such programs have been approved by the EPA.

Arguably the most notable provisions of the RCRA statute are included in Subtitle C, which directs EPA to establish controls on the management of hazardous wastes from their point of generation, through their transportation and treatment, storage and/or disposal. Because RCRA requires controls on hazardous waste generators (i.e., sites that generate hazardous waste), transporters, and treatment, storage and disposal facilities (i.e., facilities that ultimately treat/dispose of or recycle the hazardous waste), the overall regulatory framework has become known as the "cradle to grave" system. The program imposes stringent recordkeeping and reporting requirements on generators, transporters, and operators of treatment, storage and disposal facilities handling hazardous waste.

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