EPA Wiper Rule

SMART has been actively involved in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA or Agency) decades-long effort to develop regulations modifying the handling and disposal of solvent-contaminated industrial wipes and laundered shop towels. Under current regulations, discarded spent wipers are generally regarded as hazardous waste and are subject to stringent and expensive handling and disposal obligations. Laundered wipes, meanwhile, are generally not regarded as waste since they are re-used after being washed, and their handling is subject to much looser state regulations. The end result is that single-use nonwoven wipes and rags have faced consistent, federal regulation while laundered shop towels have been subject to a hodgepodge of state rules. This has created a confusing regulatory environment and an unwarranted market advantage for shop towels over non-laundered wipers.

To address this inequity, the EPA in 2003 released a proposal to modify the federal hazardous waste regulations for these wipes. While one of the key goals of the proposal was leveling the playing field for different wiping products, the 2003 draft plan called for significantly different exclusion conditions for non-laundered wipes versus laundered shop towels. For example, to be excluded from the definition of hazardous waste and disposed of at a municipal or non-hazardous waste landfill, spent non-laundered wipes had to be "dry" (i.e., contain less than five grams of solvent) and could not contain any amount of 11 solvents the Agency had tentatively deemed too risky for landfills. Meanwhile, laundered wipes needed only demonstrate they contained "no free liquids" (not dripping) prior to washing to be exempt from the definition of solid waste.

Scores of stakeholders, including SMART, raised concerns about these discrepancies and other features of the 2003 proposal, including the methodology used in its underlying risk analysis. Based on this feedback, the agency concluded a more robust risk assessment was needed and spent the next several years revamping the analysis.

The EPA released the details of its revised analysis in an Oct. 2009 "Notice of Data Availability," in it noting the original study had failed to consider whether receiving landfills would be lined or unlined and that it was now considering two new regulatory options for disposing of wipes and laundry sludge. The first would allow the 11 solvents not showing any risk to go to any municipal or non-hazardous waste landfill, whether lined or unlined, and to limit wipes and sludge containing solvents that do indicate a potential risk to lined landfills. The second would be to allow all solvent-contaminated wipes, except those containing tetrachloroethylene, to be sent to lined landfills.

SMART joined with INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, in responding to the revised assessment, and employing environmental experts who concluded the agency had been unduly conservative in several areas of the revised analysis. Correcting for these overly-conservative assumptions, the experts concluded that all solvent-contaminated wipes and laundry sludge, except for those contaminated with PCE, could safely go to unlined landfills. SMART/INDA also said the agency's findings made clear there is no need for solvent extraction or the 5 gram limit included in the 2003 proposal, and that the landfill exclusion conditions should apply equally to solvent-contaminated wipes and laundry sludge.

Just when it appeared the EPA had all the information it needed to finalize the rule, SMART learned the rulemaking had been delayed once again due to the agency's need to perform an "environmental justice" review looking into whether the regulation would have disproportionate impacts on socio-economic, racial, ethnic, and cultural minorities.

EPA staff reports the earliest the rule will be completed is mid- to late-2012. SMART is currently evaluating whether the recent partisan shifts on Capitol Hill and Republicans' highly touted plans to defund the agency to curb what it perceives as EPA overregulation will help or hinder SMART's efforts to complete the wiper rule.

• EPA's Nov.20, 2003 Proposed Solvent Soiled Industrial Wipes Rule
• EPA's Oct. 27, 2009 Notice of Data Availability Describing Details of Agency's Revised Risk Analysis
• To view SMART'S Feb. 26, 2010 comments addressing the revised risk analysis, visit: www.regulations.gov and enter keyword/ID: RCRA-2003-0004-0464.