According to the United States environmental protection agency, environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. One big issue that environmental justice seeks to address is environmental discrimination, racism and discrimination against minorities. Privilege of the dominant groups and mistreatment of non-dominant groups are just one of the potential reasons that waste management and highly-polluted sites tend to be located in minority-dominated areas. A disproportionate quantity of minority communities play host to landfills, incinerators, and other potentially toxic facilities.

Environmental justice emerged in the United States in early 1980s, as a social movement whose focus is on the equal distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. There is an environmental justice movement which was pioneered mainly by African-Americans, Latinos, Asians and Pacific Islanders and Native Americans, the environmental justice movement addresses a statistical fact: people who live, work and play in America's most polluted environments are commonly people of color and poor. Environmental justice advocates have shown that this is no accident. Communities of color, which are often poor, are routinely targeted to host facilities that have negative environmental impacts for example, a landfill, dirty industrial plant or truck depot. “The statistics provide clear evidence of what the movement rightly calls "environmental racism." Communities of color have been battling this injustice for decades.” (Below is a picture of the environmental justice movement.)

Environmental discrimination has historically been evident in the process of selecting and building environmentally hazardous sites, including waste disposal, manufacturing, and energy production facilities. The location of transportation infrastructures, including highways, ports, and airports, has also been viewed as a source of environmental injustice. Among the earliest documentation of environmental racism was a study of the distribution of toxic waste sites across the United States. Due to the results of that study, waste dumps and waste incinerators have been the target of environmental justice lawsuits and protests. Environmental justice will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and everyone will have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.