v»EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
October 2003
EPA530-F-03-035
www.epa.gov/osw
Regulatory Changes Proposed
For Certain Hazardous Waste
Recycling Activities
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to modify the hazardous waste
management regulations in order to increase recycling and conserve resources. These
changes make it easer to recycle more than 1 million tons of hazardous waste, and to
recover from these wastes metals, solvents, and other usable materials worth an estimated
value of nearly $ 1 billion. The Agency believes that this proposal will also reduce natural
resource use and associated pollution, and conserve energy and water.
Action
EPA is proposing to exclude certain types of activities involving hazardous secondary
materials from the federal hazardous waste regulations. By removing regulatory controls
over these recycling practices, EPA expects thatbeneficial recycling of hazardous sec-
ondary materials will increase. This action conforms with the Agency's long-standing
policy of promoting materials reuse and recovery overland disposal. It also is a compo-
nent of EPA's Resource Conservation Challenge (RCC). RCC is a major cross-Agency
initiative that identifies and uses innovative, flexible, and protective ways to conserve
natural resources.
EPA proposes to exclude hazardous waste from regulation when it i s generated and
reclaimed in a continuous process within the same industry. Under these provisions, these
recycled materials do not have to be managed like hazardous waste being disposed of.
The Agency estimates that the maj ority of materials affected by this proposal are gener-
atedby the following industries: inorganic chemicals, plastic materials and resins, pharma-
ceutical preparations, cyclic crudes and intermediates (specialty chemicals), industrial
organic chemicals, secondary smelting of nonferrous metals, plating and polishing, and
printed circuit boards. These proposed changes represent potential savings of $ 178
million ayear at more than 1700 plants nationwide.
This proposal does not apply to recycled materials that are considered inherently
waste-like; used in a manner constituting disposal; burned for energy recovery; or
recycled by a commercial or third-party recycler. Any material s recycled in these ways
must comply with the federal hazardous waste regulations.
Criteria to distinguish legitimate hazardous waste recycling activities from sham
recycling also are proposed. EPA and our state partners believe that now is a good time
to clarify and simplify the basic principles that underlie the hazardous waste recycling
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regulations. New language is added to the definition of solid waste that specifies four
general criteria that determine legitimate hazardous waste recycling. These criteria would
be grounds for EPA enforcement:
The secondary material to be recycled must be managed as a valuable
commodity.
The secondary material must provide a useful contribution to the recycling
process or to a product of the recycling process.
The recycling process must yield a valuable product or intermediate that i s sold or
used under specific conditions.
The product of the recycling process must not contain significant amounts of
hazardous constituents and other things.
Recycled materials must meet these legitimacy criteria to be eligible for the proposed
exclusion. The same criteria apply to already-excluded hazardous secondary materials and
to hazardous secondary materials requiring special recycling under current rules.
EPA is requesting comment for 90 days following publication of this proposal in the
FederalRegister.
Background
This action results from both a continuation of more than 10 years of work on the
regulatory definition of solid waste, and a response to decisions by the United States
Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit which address the issue of federal jurisdiction over
various kinds of recyclable materials. The latest of these decisions was issued in the case
of Association of Battery Recyclers v. EPA, 208 F.3rd 1047 (2000). The Court stated
that hazardous secondary materials, which are generated and reclaimed in a continuous
process within the same industry, were clearly not being discarded and hence were not
solid wastes.
For More Information
This fact sheet and other information related to this proposal are available on the
Internet at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/dsw/abr.htm. For additional
information, orto order paper copies of any documents, call the RCRA Call Center.
Callers within the Washington Metropolitan Area please dial 703-412-9810 or TDD 703-
412-3323 (hearing impaired). Long-distance callers please call 1-800-
424-9346 or TDD 1-800-553-7672. The RCRA Call Center operates weekdays, 9:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Address written requests to: RCRA-Docket@epa.gov or RCRA
Information Center (5305T), 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC
20460-0001.
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