Although the states play important roles in public policies for managing haz- ardous wastes and toxic substances, I focus on federal policies here. I mention state policies in passing, with references for the interested reader.
The values in Table 7-1 understate the amount of recycling and reuse as fuel. The biennial report data that form the basis for this table include only waste man- aged at facilities with a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit. Energy and material recovery facilities often do not require RCRA permits.
Some caution is necessary in interpreting Table 7-2 because a waste generator may not test additional criteria if the waste is found hazardous on the basis of the first criterion (although many do). Therefore, a larger percentage of wastes may be toxic than reported in the table.
They may take advantage of lax enforcement: A survey of small-quantity gen- erators in the San Francisco Bay area found that 57% relied on some form of illegal waste management ( Russell and Meiorin 1985).
Capacity grew rapidly in the 1980s, but growth slowed by the early 1990s. Industry sources complain of excess capacity in the 1990s ( The Hazardous Waste Con- sultant 1997).
Most firms in the survey (71%) reported that the principal difficulty in obtaining insurance is that insurance companies simply do not offer coverage ( U.S. GAO 1994a). Economists argue that such insurance markets fail for two reasons. First, high-risk buyers demand the most insurance, raising costs and pricing low-risk buyers out of the market. Second, insured parties may behave in an excessively risky fashion because they know that any resulting damages will be covered.
A few changes in the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) over time affect its use to show time trends. Figures 7-1 and 7-2 exclude chemicals with changes in reporting requirements, so the trends are meaningful. In addition, facilities that manufactured or processed between 25,000 and 50,000 pounds of TRI chemicals did not begin reporting until 1989, so the 1988 data understate the relevant quantities.
The land disposal restrictions also prohibited placing untreated wastes in surface impoundments and underground injection wells. The trends in underground injection look similar to those for landfills shown in Figure 7-1. The quantity remained stable (or maybe slightly increased in the early 1980s) and then fell after 1987. By the end of the period, almost no originally regulated wastes were managed
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Publication Information: Book Title: Public Policies for Environmental Protection. Contributors: Paul R. Portney - editor, Robert N. Stavins - editor. Publisher: Resources for the Future. Place of Publication: Washington, DC. Publication Year: 2000. Page Number: 252.
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