Does your company use towels, rags or absorbents to clean machinery, parts or spills? If yes, then you will want to know about a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that may exclude your “solvent-contaminated wipes” from the hazardous waste regulations. The federal rule took effect in January 2014 in states where EPA still runs the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) program. Since then, many other states have adopted EPA’s burden-reduction rule.
It took more than a decade, and you may not be aware that it even happened, but EPA revised its regulations under RCRA, the federal statute governing the disposal of solid and hazardous waste, to conditionally exclude solvent-contaminated wipes from certain federal hazardous waste management requirements, provided that businesses clean or dispose of them properly. Practically speaking, this means that your company may not need to send these wipes to special disposal facilities or comply with shipping manifest rules – which should translate to cost savings.
A solvent-contaminated wipe is a wipe (a woven or non-woven shop towel, rag, pad, or swab made of wood pulp, fabric, cotton, polyester blends, or other material or an absorbent mat pad) that, after use, either (1) contains one or more of the F-listed solvents found at 40 CFR 261.31 or the corresponding P- or U-listed solvents at 40 CFR 261.33; (2) exhibits a hazardous characteristic found in 40 CFR part 261 subpart C when that characteristic results from a solvent listed at 40 CFR part 261; and/or (3) exhibits only the hazardous waste characteristic of ignitability found at 40 CFR 261.21 due to the presence of one or more solvents that are not listed in 40 CFR part 261.
Before this rule, most businesses were required to manage the bulk of their “dirty wipes” as hazardous waste, which required additional management, handling and related costs. As outlined in an EPA Summary Chart, under the new rules generators may store contaminated wipes on-site for up to 180 days in leak-proof containers labeled “Excluded Solvent-Contaminated Wipes.” When it’s time to ship the wipes off-site for disposal or cleaning at an approved facility, generators must follow EPA-approved methods to make sure there are no free liquids in the containers (EPA Test Method 9095B, Paint Filter Liquids Test, is available here). Generators also must retain at their site(s) documentation that they are properly managing excluded solvent-contaminated wipes, along with records of shipments – although shipment with a hazardous waste manifest is not required.
“Reusable wipes” must go to a laundry or dry cleaner whose discharge, if any, is regulated under the Clean Water Act. “Disposable wipes” must go to a hazardous waste combustor, a municipal combustion facility, a hazardous waste landfill if contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), or a municipal solid waste landfill if contaminated with any other solvent.
Not all solvent-contaminated wipes can qualify for the RCRA exclusions. Wipes contaminated with trichloroethylene, free-liquid-spent solvent, a listed waste other than a solvent, or ones exhibiting a hazardous characteristic originating from something other than the solvent are not covered by the exclusion.
Solvent-contaminated wipes that are excluded from RCRA regulation may still be hazardous substances under Superfund and must be evaluated for a proper classification under DOT (U.S. Department of Transportation) requirements (i.e., wipes may be classified as DOT 4.1 – Flammable Solid).
Is EPA’s Wipes Rule Effective in My State?
EPA has concluded that wipes contaminated with certain hazardous solvents do not pose a significant risk to human health or the environment when managed properly. But EPA has delegated the responsibility of implementing the RCRA program to most states (except for Alaska and Iowa). Authorized states – that operate their own hazardous waste management programs in lieu of federal regulations – are not obligated to adopt EPA’s final rule because it relaxed the baseline RCRA program. States can create different standards, but they must provide protection equal and equivalent to the federal regulations. Click here to monitor the progress of state adoption of EPA’s solvent-contaminated wipes rule. And check with your state before assuming your solvent-contaminated wipes/pads are no longer solid or hazardous waste.
For a copy of the complete federal rule please go here. For more information, visit EPA’s website – click here.