If we look at some specific examples just
from the US, where litigation often results in
the highest fines of anywhere in the world, in
December 2012, the owners of more than 600
Walgreens drugstores in California were told
they would have to pay $16.57 million to settle claims that the stores illegally dumped pesticides, paints, pharmaceutical and other hazardous wastes in local landfills over a 6-1/2 year
period.
In another case decided in May 2013,
Walmart was required to pay more than $81
million in fines as a result of illegally handling
and disposing of hazardous materials at its retail stores across the United States.
In the Walmart case the failure to properly
manage damaged and returned items as hazardous waste resulted in the following RCRA
violations at hundreds of their stores: failure to
make a hazardous waste determination; failure
to prepare a hazardous waste manifest; offering hazardous waste to unpermitted treatment,
storage, and disposal facilities; and, failure to
meet hazardous waste, handling, storage, and
emergency response requirements.
One of the key issues involv