EPA issued a final rule on October 7, 2008 under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to eliminate the regulation of hazardous secondary materials when they are recycled by “legitimate” reclamation.

     The reclamation rule excludes materials from the federal hazardous waste system that are:

• generated and legitimately reclaimed under the control of the generator;
• generated and transferred to another company for legitimate reclamation under specific conditions, provided certain conditions are met; or
• the reclaimed materials are determined by EPA or an authorized state to be non-wastes on a case-by-case basis via a petition process.

     The reclamation must (1) provide a useful contribution to the recycling process; and (2) the recycling must result in a valuable new intermediate or final product. Additionally, the recycled material must be managed as a valuable product; and  the recycled product does not contain toxic constituents at significantly greater levels than a non-recycled product made from virgin materials.

     The information provided to EPA in order to apply for the exclusion includes the name, address and EPA ID number of the facility, name and phone number of a contact person, the NAIS code of the facility ; the exclusion under which the hazardous secondary materials will be managed; whether the reclaimer or intermediate facility has financial assurance; when the facility expects to begin managing the hazardous secondary materials under the exclusion; a list of hazardous secondary materials that will be managed; whether the hazardous secondary material is being managed in a land-based unit; and the quantity of hazardous secondary material that is managed annually.   Notifications are submitted using the RCRA Subtitle C Site Identification Form (EPA Form 8700-12).

     The petition process allows for submission to the authorized state or to EPA, if the state is not authorized for this regulatory provision. The petition must demonstrate that the specific recycling practice is consistent with the regulations. The state or the EPA will evaluate the application and provide public notification. After evaluating any public comments on the application, the state or the Administrator will make a determination regarding the petition. 

     EPA estimates that approximately 1.5 million tons of hazardous secondary materials annually may be removed from regulation as a hazardous waste as a result of this rule. Metals and solvent recycling are the largest industries to be impacted by this regulation.

     The final regulation can be accessed by the following link:  http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/hazard/dsw/rulemaking.htm

     This article was authored by Bill Chambers, Acacia Environmental Group LLC. For more information on the author see here.