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Hazardous Waste: DOD Efforts to Reduce Waste

NSIAD-89-35 Published: Feb 07, 1989. Publicly Released: Mar 08, 1989.
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Highlights

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's (DOD) and the services' efforts to minimize their generation of hazardous waste by: (1) changing production, repair, and maintenance processes; (2) substituting less hazardous materials; and (3) changing technical documents to allow substitution.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Defense To provide the services with accurate, consistent, and comparable hazardous waste generation data for monitoring minimization efforts and progress toward meeting waste reduction goals, the Secretary of Defense should establish a standard methodology for collecting and reporting hazardous waste generation data within DOD, which should include data on significant changes in production.
Closed – Implemented
As the result of a study by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), standard hazardous waste data elements were developed to be included in the Defense Environment Management System. OSD also is working to develop a minimization progress index. Calendar year 1990 data was due to OSD by June 1991. Calendar year 1991 data will be due with August 1991 data call information.

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Topics

Data collectionData integrityEnvironmental lawEnvironmental policiesHazardous substancesMilitary facilitiesMilitary procurementPollution controlProgram managementWaste management