Congress passed RCRA on October 21, 1976 to address the increasing problems from the nation's growing volume of municipal and industrial waste. RCRA, which amended the Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, set national goals for:

• Protecting human health and the environment from the potential hazards of waste disposal.
• Conserving energy and natural resources by recycling and recovery.
• Reducing or eliminating the amount of waste generated.
• Ensuring that wastes are managed in an environmentally-sound manner, and cleaning up waste that may have spilled, leaked, or been improperly disposed 

To achieve these goals, RCRA features three distinct programs:

• The solid waste program, under RCRA Subtitle D, encourages states to develop comprehensive plans to manage nonhazardous industrial solid waste and municipal solid waste, sets criteria for municipal solid waste landfills and other solid waste disposal facilities, and prohibits the open dumping of solid waste.
• The hazardous waste program, under RCRA Subtitle C, establishes a system for controlling hazardous waste from the time it is generated units its ultimate disposal – in effect, from "cradle to grave".
• The underground storage tank (UST) program, under RCRA Subtitle I, regulates underground storage tanks containing hazardous substances and petroleum products.

RCRA was amended and strengthened by Congress in November 1984 with the passing of the Federal Hazardous and SolidWaste Amendments (HSWA). These amendments to RCRA required the phasing out land disposal of hazardous waste. Some of the other mandates of this strict law include increased enforcement authority for the Environmental Protection Agency, more stringent hazardous waste management standards and a comprehensive underground storage tank program.