The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). RCRA classified solid waste management facilities and practices, required states to develop comprehensive state plans for solid waste management (Dufour, op. cit., p. 99). RCRA also emphasized the growing landfill capacity problem and the need to develop approaches to handling wastes. In the preamble of RCRA, attention was called to the vast quantity of recoverable materials that are placed in landfills and to the fact that the recovery or conservation of many of these materials would benefit the United States by reducing projected landfill capacity requirements, retaining and expanding our national resources, and reducing the country’s dependence on foreign resources.
In reference to recycled materials, Section 6002 of RCRA requires that federal, state, and local agencies receiving funds from the federal government must procure supplies and other items composed of the highest practical percentage of recovered or recycled materials, consistent with maintaining satisfactory levels of
• Product quality
• Technical performance
• Price competition
• Availability
Also, under RCRA, specifications cannot be written to discriminate against materials with recycled constituents. In addition, EPA was authorized to prepare guidelines for recycling, and resource recovery guidelines addressing procurement practices and information on research findings about the uses and availability of recycled materials. Guidelines covering coal fly ash in portland cement, recycled paper, retreaded tires, building insulation, and rerefined oil have been developed. While not specifically required by EPA, the guidelines encouraged most state highway programs to prepare specifications allowing the substitution of fly ash in concrete.
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA). ISTEA authorized DOT to coordinate with EPA and state programs in developing information on the economic savings, technical performance qualities, and environmental and public health threats and benefits of using recoverable resources in highway construction. TEA-21 provided technical corrections to ISTEA. ISTEA specifically calls out requirements for the percentage of asphalt pavement containing recycled rubber from scrap tires.
In addition, state legislation has been developing to promote both research into the performance and viability of recycled materials and the procurement of such materials. Many have established mandatory recycling laws and most have used wastes or waste byproducts in their highway programs.
