The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Invalidates Two Key Provisions of the 2015 Amendments to the Definition of Solid Waste

On July 7, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a decision invalidating two key provisions of the 2015 amendments to the definition of solid waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). American Petroleum Institute v. EPA (D.C. Cir. No. 09-1038). The Court invalidated Factor 4 of the legitimacy determination need for recycling hazardous materials. The Court also found the Verified Recycler Exclusion was unreasonable and reinstated the old Transfer Based Exclusion.

There are four legitimacy factors that must be met to determine when a material is being legitimately recycled, and therefore the material might be excluded from the definition of solid waste. The Court struck down Factor 4, which stated that for recycling to be legitimate, the product of the recycling process must be comparable to a legitimate product or intermediate, that is the material must have comparable hazardous properties as the final product being made with the recycled material. The Court concluded that this factor imposed “draconian” procedures for demonstrating the absence of significant environmental risk. The Court vacated Factor 4, insofar as it applies to all hazardous material under 40 CFR § 261.2(g), but it did not strike down Factor 4 as it applies to specific exclusions, such as the generator-controlled exclusion at 40 CFR § 261.4(a)(23), because the Petitioners did not challenge Factor 4 as it applies to those exclusions.

The Court also struck down the Verified Recycler Exclusion and reinstated the Transfer Based Exclusion, an earlier exclusion that the Agency issued in 2008, except it kept two provisions of the Verified Recycler Exclusion: (1) the requirement that the generator meet certain emergency preparedness standards, and (2) the expanded requirement for the materials to be properly contained.