ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND COMPETITIVE STRUCTURE: IMPLICATIONS OF THE HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

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Abstract
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) assigns the Environmental Protection Agency responsibility for protecting the public from hazards created by industrial wastes. The Agency has understandably used its mandate to construct cradle to grave regulation of waste substances that pose health hazards. The regulations, however, are likely to hike costs of legal disposal by increasing the demand for disposal sites, while at the same time reducing the supply. The higher cost of disposal may give an advantage to larger, existing firms, may deter entry of new firms to both waste generating and disposal industries, and promote illicit disposal. RCRA therefore may have the paradoxical result of increasing public exposure to hazardous wastes.

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