The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act or RCRA was passed in 1976 to control hazardous waste. It gives the right to control hazardous waste to the Environmental Protection Agency from "cradle to grave", according to the EPA's website. Its goal is to eliminate hazardous waste and to reduce waste altogether. The RCRA's regulations are enforced by inspections of properties.
The EPA's goal is to have 95 percent of the RCRA's final remedies in place by 2020. However, that is an ambitious goal that, according to the General Accounting Office or GAO, is unlikely to be met, according to several interviews with GAO and EPA officials which is reported by Lexology.
According to the same report, the RCRA will have a huge impact on commercial and industrial contractors when this goal is finally met.
"The RCRA cleanup baseline includes 3,779 facilities expected to need corrective action and the universe contains a wide variety of sites. Some properties are heavily contaminated while others were contaminated but have since been cleaned up. Still others have not been fully investigated yet, and may require little or no remediation. Inclusion in the 2020 Universe does not necessarily imply failure on the part of a facility to meet its RCRA obligations.”
These hazardous materials are very harmful to ourselves and the environment, and despite RCRA being passed forty years ago, they are clearly still a relevant danger today. There are almost four thousand facilities that do not follow the guidelines, and not all of the properties have been fully investigated. But the hazardous materials are still affecting us today. The best way we can fight this is to use safe protectants, like ECOBOND®, to keep ourselves safe.