LBGA Online School · Track 2: Professional Operations Module 2.4 · Certification
Module 2.4 · RCRA & Compliance

The law under the landfill

Every liner, monitoring well, and manifest exists because a 1976 law demanded it. The certified operator knows which of RCRA's two rulebooks applies to a given waste — and can run the four-letter test that decides in seconds.

3 briefings1 knowledge checkCertification tier
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Briefing 1 · Subtitle D, the municipal rulebook
solid waste

RCRA — the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 — splits American waste law in two. Subtitle D governs everyday, non-hazardous municipal solid waste: it is why a modern landfill must have composite liners, leachate collection, daily cover, groundwater monitoring wells, and funded post-closure care for decades after the last truck.

Where the record lives: your state environmental agency publishes each landfill's permit, inspection history, and violations — public documents an operator should be able to pull on demand.
Briefing 2 · Subtitle C, cradle to grave
hazardous

Subtitle C is the stricter book: hazardous waste is tracked "cradle to grave" — from the generator, through every transporter, to a permitted treatment/storage/disposal facility — with a signed manifest at each handoff. Households are exempt from the manifests, which is exactly why community HHW (household hazardous waste) programs exist to bridge the gap.

Operator's read: the manifest is the chain of custody. A gap in the paper trail is not an oversight — it is the violation.
Briefing 3 · The ICRT test
the gate

A waste is legally hazardous if it shows any of four characteristics — Ignitable, Corrosive, Reactive, or Toxic. Run the test on a garage shelf and it lights up: solvents and fuels (ignitable), drain cleaners and pool acid (corrosive), many batteries (reactive), pesticides and heavy-metal paints (toxic). None of it ever belongs in the landfill bin.

The route: HHW collection events and permanent depots take the ICRT items a household generates — the certified operator knows the local schedule by heart.
Knowledge check · RCRA & compliance
LBGA · Academy
RCRA & Regulatory Compliance
Professional Operations Certification · 2.4
Question 1 of 2
Under RCRA, what is the difference between Subtitle D and Subtitle C waste?
Field brief
Pull the permit
Look up your landfill's Subtitle D permit on the state environmental agency's site and skim the latest inspection. Then find your county's HHW options — the next collection event or the permanent depot — and flag one ICRT item in your own home that should go there.
① Pull the landfill permit② List the HHW options③ Flag one ICRT item