ABSTRACT
In the mid-1970s, industry managed its hazardous wastes in a traditional manner. Most were simply dumped onto the land, particularly into lagoons and ponds onsite at industrial locations. These practices, perhaps because the wastes generally were handled at the industrial sites, had not yet captured the public’s imagination so strongly as had the more apparent problems of air and water pollution. Hazardous wastes are generated across a broad spectrum of American industry. The four largest waste-producing industries, however, account for nearly 90 percent of all the total estimated hazardous wastes generated. In decreasing order, the industries are chemical and allied products, primary metals, petroleum products, and fabricated metals. Congress decided not to mandate waste reduction in 1984. Economic incentives alone were deemed sufficient to encourage industry to reduce rates of waste generation, combined with articulation of waste reduction as an overarching policy goal.
