ABSTRACT
There was no explicit hazardous waste management policy in the United States in 1975. The result of decades of neglect has been the creation of a credibility gap that has converted an eminently manageable problem into an environmental problem of monstrous proportions in the eyes of the public. Today there are laws, but the policy remains in conflict. Some view CERCLA and RCRA as having imposed costly technology that will penal ize American industry. Others view CERCLA and RCRA as having right fully imposed restrictions on hazardous waste disposal, but charge that the laws do not go far enough and that implementation and enforcement of the laws has not been vigorous.
