13. Environmental Protection Agency · Notable
Promulgate a rule creating an alternative pathway for recycled materials
Printed page 432 13. Environmental Protection Agency
“Modify regulations that impede resource efficiency, recycling, and reuse by providing clearly that these materials are not waste. This can be done by promulgating a rule that provides an alternative pathway to hazardous waste regulation to allow the transport of material to legitimate recyclers or back to manufacturers to support the recycling and reuse of material.”
What has happened
- Attempted
EPA proposed to designate scrap tires burned in cement kilns — including previously abandoned tires — as non-waste fuel under the Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials regulations, and to widen the "established tire collection program" definition so recovered abandoned tires are managed the same way. That is the Quote's first half, saying clearly that a recovered material is not waste, for one material. The second half — a rule creating an alternative pathway out of hazardous waste regulation for material transported to legitimate recyclers or back to manufacturers — has not been proposed, and this rule is a proposal that has not been finalized.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Federal Register API: “legitimate recycl” restricted to EPA from 2025-01-20 — count 0; “definition of solid waste” returns twelve documents, all state authorizations, incinerator standards or an information-collection renewal for the existing RCRA definition of solid waste (2025-12-11).
- attempted and not partial: nothing has changed yet, the scrap tire action is a proposed rule, and the hazardous waste pathway the Quote actually asks for is untouched.
- Action
- issue
- Object
- RCRA regulations on recyclable materials
- ID
- 1131