Pros And Cons Of Resources Recovery Act

Social, Political, Economic, and Environmental Pros/ Cons of Resources Conservation Recovery Act

One social con of the RCRA program is the lack of attempt to address landfills being in low-income communities. Even though the RCRA give a critical municipal service, they have failed to combat the issue of the placement of landfills near low-income homes. The problem is continuing to grow. These issues focused upon the fact that the waste mostly comes from outside the community, which eventually causes impacts to residents and degraded the environmental conditions. This issue also causes a decrease in property value because people do not want to live near landfills.

A political con associated with the policy is the fact that the law encourages states to add but not take away rules outlined in this legislation. As stated by Dale, "the act encourages states to create their own regulatory programs to manage waste so long as those programs utilize standards consistent with—or in excess of—federal limits." (Dale, 2015). This leave states with little room to make improvements to cater to their states specifically. The tension between state and federal waste management agencies are typical today. This is not beneficial for development of waste management.

An environmental con associated with this act is the fact that they do not cover electronic waste disposable.

Even though electronic waste contributes one percent of waste as discussed earlier, it poses a significant threat to the environment. “RCRA does not, however, cover electronic waste except CRTs, nor does it regulate electronic devices donated for educational or charitable reuse.” The RCRA should implement rules to govern e-waste because e-waste not only affects lives in the United States, It affects everyone globally. E-waste typically finds its ways out of the United States and ends up in developing countries like

Ghana.
An economic con associated with the RCRA program is the cost it takes to develop the plan efficiently. For waste to securely and compost, it must be natural. This requires an expanded separation metal, glass, plastics, and other risky materials containing hazardous chemicals. For this to be done, the program will require a lot of employers and advance technology. Therefore, a significant drain of resources will arise to pay workers and pay for new machines as well. Also, a increase in consumers pay as you throw bill could also pose a threat.

Conclusion
This paper highlighted the increased amount of problem caused by solid and hazardous waste in the United States. These problems include increased size of landfills, increase use of electronic waste, and recycling programs. These problems subsequently decrease biodiversity and pose a high risk to human health. Program in place to combat these issues is the federal polices called Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Although this policy exists to combat issue associated solid and hazardous waste, the problem doesn’t cover all point such as electronic waste. Continuous reviews are being made to address all the impacts related to solid and hazardous waste.