ABSTRACT
In the United States, the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste are regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Hazardous wastes are divided into two major categories: characteristic wastes and listed wastes. Universal wastes are special category of hazardous wastes that generally pose a lower threat relative to other hazardous wastes that are ubiquitous and produced in very large quantities by a large number of generators. Radioactive waste is hazardous to most forms of life and the environment and is regulated by government agencies in order to protect human health and the environment. Current major approaches to managing radioactive waste have been segregation and storage for short-lived waste, near-surface disposal for low, and some intermediate level waste, and deep burial or partitioning/transmutation for the high-level waste. Historically, some hazardous wastes were disposed of in regular landfills. Many hazardous wastes can be recycled into new products.
