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definition of solid waste
| EPA should finalize proposed changes to the definition of solid waste and adhere to its schedule for proposing changes to the comparable fuels exclusion that will promote increased energy recovery from valuable, fuel-like secondary materials. ACC supports the exclusion from the definition of waste of all legitimate recycling because this would encourage recycling and reuse, allow useful products to not be characterized as waste, reduce waste in landfills, and focus waste disposal on truly discarded materials that have no productive use. |
Contact: Tiffany Harrington
Phone: 703-741-5583
In 2003, EPA proposed to revise the Resource Conservation and Recover Act (RCRA) definition of solid waste in order to encourage and provide incentives for increased reuse and recycling of secondary materials. The Agency took this action in response to several decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that invalidated EPA’s efforts to regulate as “wastes” certain materials that were being recycled or reclaimed. EPA proposed several options for revising the definition of solid waste, ranging from very narrow revisions that do little to provide incentives for increased reuse and recycling to a broad option that would exclude all legitimate reclamation. ACC supports the exclusion from the definition of waste of all legitimate recycling because this would result in increased resource conservation and recovery.
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