Date: October 14, 2011
Source: News Room
Industry groups are divided over EPA's proposal to expand its biennial municipal solid waste (MSW) characterization report to include new waste streams. Manufacturers reject the inclusion of non-hazardous industrial waste out of a worry that inclusion will lead to their ultimate regulation. On the other hand, recycling, utility and trade associations welcome the expansion. EPA announced in August that it is planning to modify the report -- which provides the agency with information on the recycling, reuse and generation of MSW -- to include measurements of industrial and construction & demolition (C&D) waste streams. The agency asked for comments on the efficacy and scope the report, saying it will use the input to develop "new measurement definitions and protocols for measurement of these materials." EPA wants to update the report because the data is being used in new ways by industry and academia such as in designing products around materials that are being collected for recycling at high rates. The structure, content and methodology of the current report has remained unchanged since the 1970s when EPA first began gathering the data.
However, The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), according to its comments, is urging EPA to keep the report focused on traditional MSW and continue to exclude iron and steel slags, spent foundry sands, pulp and paper residues and other non-hazardous industrial wastes and C&D since "EPA has not provided sufficiently clear rational or justification to add these materials to the MSW report." Other industry groups, such as the Automotive Recycling Association (ARA) and the National Slag Association (NSA), also argue their products are not waste and therefore should not be included in the report. The American Petroleum Institute (API) raises concerns in its comments that including new materials in the report could complicate the regulatory status of the materials.
Conversely, other industry groups welcome an expanded report, although they urge EPA to distinguish between traditional MSW and other waste streams. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), for example said in its comments that "it would be helpful to know the types and amounts of these secondary materials being sent to landfills as solid wastes," but only wants materials that are actually discarded to be measured. The National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA), which represents private sector waste management companies, agrees with expanding the report, saying in its comments that the report's data are important for public education, to assess trends and to provide data for investor reports but that EPA's current data fails to give a complete picture of the size of the waste stream. Electric utilities represented by Utilities Solid Waste Activities Group wants EPA to expand the report to include coal combustion residuals (CCRs) saying it would "facilitate additional beneficial use of this substantial non-hazardous waste stream." EPA is currently weighing whether to regulate CCR as a hazardous or solid waste under RCRA.
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