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Title 42, The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-110

§13101 Findings and Policy

Title 42 › CHAPTER 133 — POLLUTION PREVENTION › § 13101

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Congress requires the Environmental Protection Agency to set up a program to cut pollution at its source. The law notes the United States makes millions of tons of pollution and spends tens of billions of dollars per year to control it. Businesses can often save money and protect workers and the environment by changing how they make and use materials, but rules and a lack of information keep them from doing this. The EPA must gather and share information, give financial help to States, and carry out other actions called for in the law. The national policy is: prevent or reduce pollution at its source when possible; if you can’t, recycle it safely when possible; if you can’t recycle, treat it safely when possible; and only use disposal or release into the environment as a last resort, done safely.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §13101

The Public Health and Welfare, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(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.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This chapter, referred to in subsec. (a)(5), was in the original “this subtitle”, meaning subtitle F (§§ 6501, 6601–6610) of title VI, Pub. L. 101–508, which is classified generally to this chapter. For complete classification of subtitle F to the Code, see

Short Title

note below and Tables.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

Pub. L. 101–508, title VI, § 6601, Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1388–321, provided that: “This subtitle [subtitle F (§§ 6501, 6601–6610) of title VI of Pub. L. 101–508, enacting this chapter and section 4370c of this title] may be cited as the ‘Pollution Prevention Act of 1990’.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 13101

Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110