CHAPTER 15 ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS: WASTES AND POLLUTION.499 TIPS FOR REDUCING SOLID WASTE Reduce 9. Select products made from recycled materials 1. Reduce the amount of unnecessary packaging. 10. Compost yard trimmings and some food 2. Adopt practices that reduce waste toxicity. Reuse Respe 3. Consider reusable products 11. Educate others on source reduction and red 4. Maintain and repair durable products cling practices. Make your preferences known 5. Reuse bags, containers, and other items to manufacturers, merchants, and community 6. Borrow, rent, or share items used infrequently leaders 7. Sell or donate goods instead of throwing them 12. Be creative-find new ways to reduce waste quantity and toxicity. Ree 8. Choose recyclable products and containers Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1992). Tbe Consumer's Handbook for Reducing Solid Waste. and recycle them Washington, D. C: U.S. Government Printing Office, P. 7. problem of appropriately disposing of new hazardous waste while working to cor rect the errors of mishandling of hazardous waste in the past. There are untold numbers of hazardous waste sites that are"polluted"from past actions, legal and illegal, that must be cleaned up. Meanwhile, the production of hazardous wastes continues at a record pace. The United States alone produces almost 300 million metric tons of hazardous industrial waste annually. That is more than 1 ton of waste for every person living in the country. This figure does not include any wastes that re discarded improperly or illegally Hazardous Waste Defined The RCRA act of 1976, mentioned previously, was the first comprehensive law to address the collection and disposal of wastes. This law, and its 1984 amend- ments, provide for"cradle-to-grave"regulation of solid hazardous wastes. According to this act the term "hazardous waste"means a solid waste or combination of solid wastes which, because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may(1) cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness; or (2) pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environ- ment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of, or otherwise Environmental managed Protection Agency It is the responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA)to primarily responsible implement the legislation created by the RCRA. There are now more than 400 sub- for effing stances that are considered hazardous wastes in the United States. The Epa list includes neither radioactive wastes, which are controlled by the nuclear n snorunt, Regulatory Commission, nor biomedical wastes, which are regulated by the indi- standards vidual states