National Partnership for Environmental Priorities

According to EPA, waste minimization includes: source reduction practices that reduce or eliminate waste generation at the source; and environmentally sound recycling practices, where source reduction is not economically practical.

Waste Minimization is a term found in the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) that refers to source reduction and environmentally sound recycling of RCRA hazardous waste. Pollution Prevention is a term found in the federal Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 that refers to source reduction of all toxic wastes, including those released to air, water and land resources.

• Source reduction includes any practice that reduces the quantity and/or toxicity of pollutants entering a waste stream prior to recycling, treatment, or disposal. Examples include: equipment or technology modifications, reformulation or redesign of products, substitution of less toxic raw materials, improvements in work practices, maintenance, worker training, and better inventory control.
• Environmentally sound recycling includes the use, reuse and/or reclamation of residuals that may be designated as a hazardous waste, or materials in a hazardous waste. A material is "used or reused" if it is used as an ingredient in an industrial process to make a product or, or if it is used as an effective substitute for a commercial product. A material is "reclaimed" if it is processed to recover a usable product, or if it is regenerated.

DEQ actively supports several outreach efforts relating to minimizing hazardous waste generation. Click on the links below for more information:

NEW! EPA Waste Minimization News - NPEP Bulletin Summer 2006

National Waste Minimization Program
This site provides general background on waste minimization and links to technical assistance, voluntary partnerships and analysis tools.

National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP)
EPA's newest waste minimization effort is the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities Program (NPEP). This voluntary program encourages results by publicly recognizing and showcasing the source reduction, recycling and advanced manufacturing accomplishments of member partners who commit to reducing wastes containing the "Waste Minimization Priority Chemicals". These 31 chemicals are found in hazardous waste and are documented contaminants of air, land, water, plants and animals.

EPA Region III Waste Minimization
Check out what is happening related to waste minimization in the Mid-Atlantic region, including free technical assistance services.

Resource Conservation Challenge
The Resource Conservation Challenge is a new major national effort to find flexible, yet more protective ways to conserve natural resources through waste reduction and energy recovery activities. The RCC identifies areas of program focus, or "challenges" that are ready for voluntary partnerships. Each of these challenges works to resolve national environmental problems by finding environmentally acceptable solutions.

EPA Office of Solid Waste Index of Programs
This site provides an index of all the EPA programs offered by the Office of Solid Waste. The common denominator for all these programs is reducing waste. The topics include Voluntary Partnerships, compliance assistance tools, industry specific information, pollution prevention opportunities and recycling practices. This wealth of information is focused on reducing waste.