Waste disposal: Hazmat to go: trash disposal has changed the way we live.

• Author: Pielli, Brooke

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In the good old days, getting rid of trash meant a quick walk through the house to the kitchen and the large, metal pail next to the sink, which stood ever ready to gobble up old newspapers, plastic lunch wrap, old flashlight batteries and half-empty cans of varnish. It all went into that one receptacle that was lined with a paper bag from the grocery store. Once filled, the brown paper bag journeyed to the large metal trash can at the curb, which was emptied by the town sanitation crew once a week.

The final destination for the contents of that can was the town dump where, of any Saturday morning, some of the men in town who believed themselves to be "handy," met with other similarly minded men to rescue "still-usables." This was an early form of recycling. That high-mindedness nowadays carries no weight except, maybe, the penance of a heavy EPA fine.

BIG BROTHER

The official hazardous materials table by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is 216 pages. The EPA designated procedures for collection and disposal of hazardous materials requires mandatory, strict adherence.

All of this is to meet the goal of the EPA to protect the environment and its people.

The creation of the EPA has spawned (1) new ways of thinking about, and disposing of, both household and industrial trash and byproducts, (2) the creation of new disposal industries, and (3) increased costs to communities and its residents for the safe removal and disposal of items deemed hazardous.

The EPA was created in 1970, through an executive reorganization plan that resulted in the creation of an independent regulatory agency. This agency, the Department of Environmental Protection, bears the responsibility of implementing all federal laws, which seek to protect the environment.

Over the past 37 years, efforts to increase recognition of the dangers of Hazmat--hazardous materials-has resulted in an increased concern for the environment, and by extension, an increased concern for the people exposed to hazardous materials, particularly those exposed to hazardous materials on a regular basis.

The mission of the EPA is designed "to establish and enforce standards consistent with national environmental goals," that is, according to the DEP Web site, "the conduct of research on the adverse effects of pollution, and on methods and equipment for controlling it, the gathering of information on pollution, and the use of this information in strengthening...