Groups Argue over EPA's Definition of Solid Waste Rule

Date: May 23, 2016

Source: News Room

Industry and environmentalists are taking issue with the US EPA's 2015 definition of solid waste (DSW) rule. In separate legal briefs, groups question on different grounds the agency's provision excluding "verified recyclers" from hazardous waste rules and dispute other agency arguments in a case asking a federal appellate court to uphold the rule. The DSW rule, issued under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA), was modified by the Obama EPA to require the use of all four of EPA's criteria for determining that recycling of hazardous waste is legitimate, rather than just two criteria under the 2008 Bush-era rule. A case American Petroleum Institute (API) v. EPA, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will test the legitimacy of the 2015 revision. At issue is how the EPA characterizes the transfer of materials to a third party and whether that constitutes "discard" -- a term key to defining a material as a waste. Industry saysthe EPA is "dramatically" expanding its RCRA jurisdiction "by making the 'legitimacy' factors mandatory for all in-process, recycled or reused 'hazardous secondary materials' -- not just the narrow categories of materials addressed by the 2008 rule's two regulatory exclusions." EPA argues the legitimacy factors merely act as a test to determine if materials are really being recycled.

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