Understanding waste prescription and nonprescription pharmaceuticals

by Enviro.BLR.com, an HSL publishing partner

The EPA has long emphasized that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and its regulations were written to address the generation of solid and hazardous wastes by industrial plants and the storage, treatment, and disposal of such wastes at permitted facilities and landfills. What the regulations were not intended to cover is the generation of wastes by retail facilities. While some of these wastes are indeed hazardous, the vast number and variety of retail businesses, as well as their lack of regulatory experience and economic means, are such that any imposition of the RCRA Subtitle C (hazardous waste) requirements would likely result in noncompliance on such a large scale that there could be no expectation that an effective level of enforcement could occur.

The EPA has long emphasized that the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and its regulations were written to address the generation of solid and hazardous wastes by industrial plants and the storage, treatment, and disposal of such wastes at permitted facilities and landfills. What the regulations were not intended to cover is the generation of wastes by retail facilities