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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 13101. Findings and policy
(a) Findings
The Congress finds that:
(1) The United States of America annually produces millions of
tons of pollution and spends tens of billions of dollars per year
controlling this pollution.
(2) There are significant opportunities for industry to reduce
or prevent pollution at the source through cost-effective changes
in production, operation, and raw materials use. Such changes
offer industry substantial savings in reduced raw material,
pollution control, and liability costs as well as help protect
the environment and reduce risks to worker health and safety.
(3) The opportunities for source reduction are often not
realized because existing regulations, and the industrial
resources they require for compliance, focus upon treatment and
disposal, rather than source reduction; existing regulations do
not emphasize multi-media management of pollution; and businesses
need information and technical assistance to overcome
institutional barriers to the adoption of source reduction
practices.
(4) Source reduction is fundamentally different and more
desirable than waste management and pollution control. The
Environmental Protection Agency needs to address the historical
lack of attention to source reduction.
(5) As a first step in preventing pollution through source
reduction, the Environmental Protection Agency must establish a
source reduction program which collects and disseminates
information, provides financial assistance to States, and
implements the other activities provided for in this chapter.
(b) Policy
The Congress hereby declares it to be the national policy of the
United States that pollution should be prevented or reduced at the
source whenever feasible; pollution that cannot be prevented should
be recycled in an environmentally safe manner, whenever feasible;
pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in
an environmentally safe manner whenever feasible; and disposal or
other release into the environment should be employed only as a
last resort and should be conducted in an environmentally safe
manner.
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