United States
                     Environmental Protection
                     Agency
Office of Solid Waste
and Emergency Response
(5305)
EPA530-F-94-028
November 1994
                     Office of Solid Waste
SEPA         Environmental
                     Fact  Sheet
      Background

      The Resource Conservation and
      Recovery Act (RCRA), as amended
      by the Hazardous and Solid Waste
      Amendments of 1994 (HSWA),
      emphasizes a national policy that
      focuses on reducing or eliminating
      the generation of hazardous waste,
      rather than managing waste after it
      is generated. The Pollution
      Prevention Act of 1991 further
                               ^
      underscored the need for preventing
      pollution at its source.

      The Draft Hazardous Waste
      Minimization and Combustion
      Strategy announced by EPA in May
      of 1993 called for reducing the
      amount of hazardous waste
      generated nationality through the
      establishment of a strong preference
      for source reduction and
      environmentally sound recycling
      over waste management.  And, in
      May of 1994, EPA released the Draft
      RCRA Waste Minimization National
      Plan, which proposed a series of
      initiatives to reduce the amount of
      hazardous waste destined for
      combustion, and proposed a longer-
      term effort to minimize the
  generation of all RCRA hazardous
  wastes. Additionally, an
  announcement of the availability of
  a draft methodology for setting
  source reduction priorities was
  published in the Federal Register on
  August 12,1994.

  Action

  Today, EPA is releasing the final
  Hazardous Waste Minimization
  National Plan.  The National Plan
  reflects input from an extensive
  outreach effort to public interest
  and community groups, citizens,
  industry, State and Federal
  regulators, and technical experts.

  Goals of the Hazardous Waste
  Minimization  Plan

  The Plan sets national goals for
  reducing constituents in hazardous
  waste that are persistent,
  bioaccumulative, and toxic by 25%
  by the year 2000 and by 50% by the
  year 2005. It also calls for ensuring
  that these constituents are reduced

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  at the source whenever possible,
  and when not possible, that they are
  recycled in an environmentally
  sound manner.

  While these goals are national, EPA
  expects that generators, whose
  hazardous wastes contain these
  constituents, have flexibility to set
  their own individual facility goals
  and baseline years and measure
  their own progress in a manner that
  is tailored to the facility involved.

  Implementation of the Plan

 The Plan reflects the recognition
 that in order to achieve its goals,
 EPA must allow States and industry
 the flexibility to identify those
 actions that will result in the
 greatest source reduction and
 recycling of the constitutents of
 concern. The Plan also recognizes
 the need to promote accountability
 and the tracking of progress.

 The Plan details a set of objectives
 that reflect five common, recurring
 themes raised by those who
 participated in discussions and/or
 provided comments on the Draft
 Plan. EPA's actions to implement
 these objectives include a
 combination of voluntary,
 regulatory, and institutional
 mechanisms. Specific action items
 are outlined in the Plan. The Plan
 also provides a set of initial national
 priorities for metals contained in
 hazardous waste that are
 combusted as a point of departure
 for EPA, the States, and industry to
 begin focusing on source reduction
 and environmentally sound
recycling.
  The Five Objectives in the
  National Plan are:

  Objective 1: Develop a framework
  for setting national priorities;
  identify constituents of concern and
  develop flexible screening tools for
  identifying priorities at individual
  facilities.

  Objective 2: Promote multimedia
  environmental benefits and prevent
  cross-media transfers.

  Objective 3: Demonstrate a strong
 preference for source reduction;
 shift attention to the nation's
 hazardous waste generators to
 reduce hazardous waste generation
 at its source.

 Objective 4: Clearly define and
 track progress; promote
 accountability for EPA, states and
 industry.

 Objective 5: Involve citizens in
 waste minimization implementation
 decisions.

 Contact

 For additional information or to
 order a copy of the RCRA Hazardous
 Waste Minimization National Plan,
 contact the RCRA Hotline, Monday-
 Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. EST.
The national toll-free number is
 (800) 424-9346; TDD (800) 553-
 7672 (hearing impaired); in
Washington, D.C., the number is
(703)412-9810, TDD (703) 412-3323

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