Administrative Watch
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently revised its rules governing the recycling of spent materials, listed hazardous sludge and listed by-products associated with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) definition of solid waste (DSW). See 80 Fed. Reg. 1693-1814 (Jan. 13, 2015). The revised rules now require generators of recyclable hazardous secondary materials (HSM) to send these materials to RCRA permitted treatment, storage and disposal facilities or to approved “verified recyclers.” In addition, generators of any hazardous materials that are destined for recycling will now be required to: (1) comply with new rigorous recordkeeping requirements designed to prevent the speculative accumulation of recyclable materials; and (2) demonstrate that the recycling of the material is legitimate. EPA also formalized its long-standing policy prohibiting sham recycling and introduced a requirement that HSM must be “contained” in order to prevent releases of the material during storage. Further, generators of and facilities that store or recycle HSM will be required to comply with new notification and emergency preparedness and response requirements.