Recycling Laws By State

Why Are Recycling Laws Different In Some States?

All of the following is from the EPA website.

State Adoption

Like in most federal environmental legislation, EPA encourages states to develop and run their own hazardous waste programs as an alternative to direct EPA management. State adoption of the universal waste rules is optional because the rules are less stringent than the previous requirements under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). States can create different standards (except for batteries due to the Battery Act), but they have to be equivalent to the federal regulations (i.e., they must provide equivalent protection, cannot regulate fewer handlers, etc.).

States may adopt an entire rule or certain provisions of a rule, which are:

• General provisions,
• Provisions for batteries, pesticides, mercury-containing equipment, and lamps (states do not have to include all of them), and
• Provisions allowing the addition of new universal wastes in state.

The universal waste rules went into effect immediately in states and territories that are not RCRA-authorized including Iowa, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. State adoption of the 1995 universal wastes rule as well as subsequent federal universal wastes (e.g., lamps, mercury-containing equipment) are strongly encouraged.

State Additions

Additionally, U.S. states authorized for the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) petition process may add additional universal wastes to the state’s universal waste program. In order for a state to add waste to the universal waste program:

• the waste must be generated by a wide variety of generators,
• the waste cannot be exclusive to a specific industry and
• the waste must be hazardous.

Also, the state must have a collection system in place and ensure that the universal waste program will increase the likelihood that the waste will be recycled. Keep in mind that state universal waste is only regulated as universal waste in that state and other states that have the same waste added to their universal waste programs.

Below is a table with columns showing the name of each U.S. state, a link to each state’s universal waste regulations (where possible), if the state adopted the 1995 universal waste final rule, and if the state is authorized for that rule.

Notes about this table:

• Adoptions/authorization status listed was last updated on June 7, 2006.
• The linked regulations may not be the most current.
• States do not have to include all of the federal universal wastes when the states adopt the rule. For example, Maine and Washington did not include pesticides and North Dakota did not include thermostats. The table below contains more detail about which states have adopted which universal wastes.

Universal Wastes in Each State and State Additions

The universal waste regulations can vary between states and states can add different types of wastes. Below is a table with columns showing the name of each U.S. state, the four types of federal universal wastes, additional universal wastes the state has added to its program, and the regulatory citation for the state’s universal waste program. An “X” marked in the columns Batteries, Pesticides, Mercury-Containing Equipment or Lamps indicates that the state universal waste program includes that federal universal waste.