Hazardous Waste Determination and Government Enforcement Actions in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Law No. 24051: Comparison between the United States and Argentina

The incremental generation and disposal of hazardous waste, causing severe environmental pollution, has become one the world’s most important ecological problems starting with the Stockholm Conference in 1972. This paper examines two legislative reactions to pollution caused by hazardous wastes in the United States, under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 1976 (RCRA), and Argentina, in Law No. 24051. This paper makes a comparative analysis of the material provisions of both the RCRA and the Law with emphasis on the tools and actions provided for the enforcement of the RCRA and the Law. The paper concludes that the RCRA and the Argentinian Law provide a holistic definition and good designs for the control and management of hazardous wastes. The paper recommends that enforcement actions in Argentina should be made to include civil, criminal and administrative actions which are more expansive, giving the executive arm of government, further discretion and authority to prevent and adequately penalize breach of any provisions of the Argentinian Law.