After years of controversy, EPA recently adopted more stringent
regulations for waste recyclers. On January 13, 2015, EPA issued
its Final Rule in the Federal Register that amended the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act ("RCRA") Subtitle C
"Definition of Solid Waste." Under the Rule, EPA
restricted the recycling exemption by codifying a prohibition on
"sham recycling" that requires all recycling activities
to be "legitimate" in order to claim an exemption from
RCRA. The Rule will become effective on July 13, 2015 in those
states where EPA is authorized to administer the RCRA program.
However, in the majority of the states that are authorized to
administer and enforce the RCRA program, the states will have to
adopt the Rule for it to become effective.
