REPORT / INTERNATIONAL NEWS

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last week issued new regulations to manage the shipping of hazardous waste between the U.S. and the other 29 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. The newly-issued final rule "aligns EPA's hazardous waste import/export/transit shipment regulations with the procedures" of the OECD — the international organization with the mandate to coordinate economic, environmental, and social issues between member states.

The new rules revise existing regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which governs the shipment of hazardous waste within the U.S., and applies it to OECD regulations. The changes include requiring a certificate of waste recovery to be submitted by U.S. recovery facilities, add both documentation and tracking requirements to current regulations for recovery and recycling facilities.

The RCRA regulations for spent lead-acid batteries (SLABs) were also updated, adding export notification and consent requirements "to provide stricter controls and greater transparency for exports of SLABs to any country, and should ensure that the batteries are sent to countries and reclamation facilities in those countries that can manage the SLABs in an environmentally sound manner," according to EPA.