5.5 Regulation of waste disposal and recycling

Circular economies as a framework for reducing and eliminating waste

The foundational idea for a circular economy is that, in the long run, all non-renewable resources should be continuously recycled, re-entering the economy in a new, valuable form after each use, and all renewable resources should be disposed of in positive ways such as in compost that produces nutrients that can be reused. Product design should ensure that finite resources can be recovered and recycled without loss of value. Such design is the antithesis – the opposite – of planned obsolescence, in which products are designed to be replaced in order to keep consumers buying new items and throwing away old ones.

Life-cycle analysis or assessment is an approach to understanding the impacts of a product throughout its existence – the phrase “cradle-to-grave” is often used. Waste impacts and impacts related to processing can occur in the acquisition of raw materials, production, use, and disposal of a product. For consumers to understand the true impacts of their purchases, they need information not only on disposability and recycling options, but on the full suite of impacts that occur during the life of a product. It can be a useful tool for assessing product design and determining where opportunities exist to move close to a circular economy.

Many of the processes by which products are made and disposed of create opportunities for externalities. To eliminate externalities, industries would need to be made completely liable for eliminating impacts during raw-material acquisition, manufacturing, and disposal, and users would need to be made completely liable for eliminating impacts during use. Product prices would rise accordingly, but environmental and other impacts could be controlled, and costs would be borne by consumers of specific products, not by the public in general, through taxes.

Changes needed to reduce externalities and move toward a circular economy cannot occur overnight. Policies and regulation can be used to guide industries to use production methods that minimize waste and other impacts; governments or industries can create means for recycling and composting. But standards must continually improved, and penalties must continue to be applied, so that progress occurs.

Ratcheting mechanisms in environmental policies, such as we saw with pollution reduction, are useful in incremental (stepwise) approaches to addressing externalities. Ratcheting mechanisms allow policies to continue to improve sustainability without the need for continual amendment or new policies, ensuring ongoing changes to standards over time. Changes can be specified in the policy (e.g., 5% reduction every 3 years), or the policy can delegate authority for future changes to specific agencies or to collaborative groups of diverse stakeholders to permit greater flexibility (but perhaps, also, greater procrastination).

Regulation of waste and recycling in the US

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 is the primary means by which the US regulates management of solid and hazardous waste; it is administered by the US EPA. RCRA sets out a national system for control of solid waste and establishes cradle-grave control of hazardous wastes. Open dumping is banned, and minimum standards are set for landfills. States implement the regulations for non-hazardous waste and may develop tighter standards than set by the EPA. States may develop programs to handle hazardous wastes; if they do not do so, then EPA implements the regulations within the state. Local governments may also create regulations related to waste, including bans on plastic bags, requirements for recycling, bans of recyclable material in landfills, deposits on cans and bottles, etc. No federal statute requires recycling, but state and local requires exist. Food waste is not addressed at the federal level, but some states require composting or recycling of organic wastes, generally, and New York and California require some businesses and institutions to donate food that is still edible to food banks and similar organizations.

A variety of additional laws govern specific substances or situations. Some examples follow.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, sometimes called Superfund) of 1980 establishes a tax on chemical and petroleum industries to create a trust fund (the Superfund) to clean up abandoned heavily contaminated lands (Superfund sites) and holds responsible extant companies that are found responsible for such contamination.

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TOSCA) of 1976 gives EPA the authority to require information about toxic substances from manufacturers and to require testing to understand the risks of toxic substances before they can be produced for market. TOSCA allows EPA to ban substances deemed to dangerous to produce.

The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)  of 1947 directs EPA to oversee the sale and use of these substances to protect public health. Pesticides must be registered before they can be sold; uses that do not follow labeled instructions are illegal. Regulations distinguish between uses associated with food and food crops and other uses.

The Ocean Dumping Act of 1972 is part of the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act. It prevents or severely limits dumping beyond “territorial waters” of the ocean – beyond 3 nautical miles (3.5 statute miles; 5.6 kilometers).

The US makes only sparing use of the “polluter pays” approach at the federal level. Superfund sites are the responsibility of the parties – usually industries – that created the contamination. States may add regulations that require producers to address the waste they produce. For example, New York’s state Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act requires electronics manufacturers to manage collection and recycling of e-waste.

Similarly, no incentives for waste reduction or recycling exist at the federal level, but state and federal requirements exist.

International regulations and guidelines for waste and recycling

The EU Waste Framework Directive is part of a suite of measures associated with establishing a circular economy. It lays out a legal framework for dealing with waste. It uses the upside-down pyramid of preferred approaches for waste from Section 5.1 to establish grounds for its priorities. It creates a system in which the original waste producer is expected to pay for the cost of their waste (“polluter pays”). It establishes recycling and recovery targets for 2020 of 50% for household waste and 70% for construction and demolition waste and ratchets the targets down at 5-year intervals, adding new targets such as having bio-waste collected separately or recycled onsite by the end of 2023.^[1] In the area of waste and recycling, the EU uses ratcheting mechanisms more consistently than the US.

A variety of EU statutes deal with specific kinds of waste, including packaging waste, waste containing persistent organic pollutants, and wastes associated with electrical and electronic equipment. ^[2] Regulations place the burden of cost on producers and require member states to ensure wastes are collected and that wastes such as electric and electronic equipment are collected free by producers or their agents.

The World Health Organization and other UN bodies also provide guidance on waste disposal and recycling. Their recommendations are grouped together in a compendium on health and the environment. The waste chapter^[3] addresses issues such as improving waste collection, monitoring of waste streams and health risks, child labor, and providing incentives for waste reduction and recycling.

The UN also coordinates the attempts to develop an international treaty to address plastic pollution. As mentioned earlier, as of 2025, those efforts have failed primarily due to obstacles created by nations with large fossil-fuel sectors.

Knowledge Check

Take a moment to complete the short quiz below to assess your understanding of this section. Read each question carefully and refer to the section content as needed. This quiz is not graded – it’s simply an opportunity for you to reflect on what you’ve learned and reinforce key concepts.