Environmental Law Matters

After 15 years without significant revisions, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) is proposing an overhaul of its recycling rules.  The proposed regulations, which ADEM released for public notice and comment on March 19, include various changes to the existing requirements for categories of currently regulated facilities – Materials Recovery Facilities, Recovered Materials Processing Facilities, and Energy Recovery Facilities.

In addition, the proposed regulations include obligations for a newly regulated facility category – an End-Use Manufacturing Facility – defined within the rules as “a site that converts a recovered or recyclable material to be utilized in place of a raw material and adds value as a final product or as an ingredient in a subsequent product.” While the existing recycling rules specifically exclude facilities that use recyclable or recovered materials in the manufacturing process, the proposed rules would prohibit End-Use Manufacturing Facilities from receiving, storing, processing or transferring recovered materials “without being properly registered” with ADEM. The rules would also require annual reporting by End-Use Manufacturing Facilities “of the types of recovered and recyclable materials received for utilization of raw materials.” These proposed changes will likely draw in a number of facilities that were previously outside the scope of ADEM’s recycling program.

ADEM will receive public comments on the proposed rules through May 6. A link to the redline of the proposed rules can be found here.