Faxback 11765
9441.1993(14)

United States Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, D.C. 20460
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response

September 1, 1993

Mr. Frank J. Prasil, III
Recycled Printer's Ink, Inc.
1101 Jefferson Avenue
Knoxville, Tennessee 37917

Dear Mr. Prasil:

Thank you for your letter dated November 12, 1992, describing
your proposal to remanufacture (i.e., recycle) waste printer's ink
from sheet fed lithographic printers. We also appreciated the
opportunity to meet with you on several occasions, most recently on
August 10, 1993, to learn more about your proposed ink recycling
operation. In your letter, you specifically asked if there were any
special permits needed to remanufacture used printer's ink. I
apologize for the delay in responding to your question.

The federal law that governs hazardous waste management is the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The regulations
which implement this law are found at Title 40 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR), Parts 260 through 272. Below I will
outline some of the more important parts of the federal RCRA
regulations that may pertain to your proposed waste ink recycling
process. In order to establish whether and how the waste ink
recycling process you propose is regulated under RCRA, it is
important to determine 1) whether or not the waste ink meets the
definition of RCRA hazardous waste as defined in 40 CFR Part 261,
2) if hazardous, how the recycling process itself is regulated,
including hazardous waste storage and the management of recycling
residues, and 3) how the RCRA regulations may differ for hazardous
waste received exclusively from Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity
Generators (CESQGs).

Hazardous Waste Determination

A solid waste is defined as a hazardous waste if it meets any
of the listing descriptions in 40 CFR Part 261, Subpart D, or if it
exhibits any of the characteristics in 40 CFR Part 261, Subpart C.
You stated in your letter that your proposed recycling process will
be accepting waste ink from sheet-fed lithographic printers. Based
on the information you provided, the waste ink is defined as a
spent material (40 CFR 261.1(c)(1)), which is being reclaimed.
Spent materials that are to be reclaimed are defined as solid waste
(40 CFR 261.2(c)(3)). You stated that in general the waste ink is
currently being managed by printers as ignitible hazardous waste,
and that it may also contain solvents used to clean the equipment
during printing operations. Based on the information you provided,
the waste ink appears to meet the definition of non-acute hazardous
waste either by 1) exhibiting the characteristic of ignitability
(D001), or 2) by meeting a spent solvent listing in Section 261.31
(F001 - F005), depending on what types of solvents are used to
clean the ink machines. If the used ink does not meet the
definition of hazardous waste, the hazardous waste regulations
would not be applicable.

Regulation of Hazardous Waste Recycling

Assuming that the waste ink is hazardous waste, the RCRA
regulations pertaining to hazardous waste recycling are found in 40
CFR Sections 261.2, 261.6, and Part 266. According to 40 CFR
261.6(c), no federal RCRA permit is required to recycle hazardous
waste. However, owners and operators of recycling facilities that
store hazardous waste prior to recycling it must a obtain RCRA
permit for the storage of that hazardous waste (40 CFR 261.6(c)).
You indicated to my staff that you would not be storing the waste
ink prior to recycling, but would instead be inserting it directly
into the recycling process. If there is no storage prior to
recycling, you would not need a RCRA storage permit, but would
instead be subject to the requirements in 40 CFR 261.6(c)(2). In
situations where hazardous wastes are received from off site but
are held temporarily prior to being recycled, the determination of
whether or not the recycling facility requires a RCRA storage
permit (i.e., is "storage" occurring) is a site-specific one; this
type of determination should be made by the agency responsible for
implementing the RCRA program (i.e., authorized State or EPA
regional office) in the state where the proposed recycling facility
will be located.

Also, according to 40 CFR 261.6(c), a hazardous waste
recycling facility is required to notify under RCRA Section 3010
(and obtain an EPA ID number) regardless of whether or not a RCRA
permit is required for that facility. Obtaining an EPA ID number
helps ensure that the waste can be transported from the generator
to the recycler/storage facility in compliance with the hazardous
waste manifest requirements.

Management of Residues from Recycling

It appears that the waste ink you will be recycling may carry
a hazardous waste listing (e.g., F001 - F005). In previous
discussions with my staff, you had indicated that your proposed
recycling process would not generate any residues that would be
defined as wastes, and would therefore not be "derived-from" listed
hazardous wastes (see footnote 1). The materials that you stated
could possibly be produced from the ink reclamation process
(besides the recovered ink itself) include reclaimed solvent,
distilled water, or a water/solvent mixture, depending on the type
and configuration of the recovery equipment. At our meeting on
August 10, 1993, you indicated that at present you are considering
recovering the water/solvent mixture, that then would undergo some
minimal processing (i.e., addition of surfactants) and be sold back
to the printers for use as a cleaner in the printing process (see
footnote 2). For any of these situations, the residues would need
to be legitimate products in order to be excluded from the
definition of solid waste (and therefore not be hazardous waste).

While the EPA is very familiar with the example of spent
solvents attaining "product status" once they are reclaimed, the
other examples you cited (specifically, the distilled water and the
decanted water/solvent mixture) are less clear. Legitimacy
determinations regarding the status of reclaimed materials as
products are typically made on a case-specific basis by the agency
implementing the RCRA program (e.g., authorized state or EPA
region). Factors that may be considered include how similar the
recovered material is to the virgin product it is replacing (in
terms of both it's value and the presence of hazardous constituents
not normally found in the virgin product), and whether there are
any product specifications that apply to the solvent/water mixture
you are "producing" from your reclamation process. I have enclosed
some information that should help explain some of the criteria EPA
would use in evaluating these types of situations.

Requirements for CESQG Waste

In your letter, you indicated that 80% of sheet-fed
lithographic printers are conditionally-exempt small quantity
generators (CESQGs). As you know, the amount of hazardous waste
generated per facility per calendar month determines a generator's
category, which in turn affects the degree of regulation under RCRA
of both the generator and the waste itself (40 CFR Part 262). By
definition a CESOG generates less than 100 kilograms of non-acute
hazardous waste per month. Alternatively, if a printer generates
between 100 and 1000 kilograms of hazardous waste, they are defined
as a small quantity generator (SQG); and if the printer generates
more than 1000 kilograms of hazardous waste, they are defined as a
large quantity generator. Small and large quantity generators are
subject to more substantive requirements outlined in 40 CFR 262.34.
The printer, as generator, is responsible for calculating the total
amount of hazardous waste (not just hazardous waste ink) his or her
business generates during each and every month. You should be aware
that the amount of hazardous waste generated per month may vary,
and thus the applicable regulatory requirements for the generator
and the waste itself may also vary from month to month.

Assuming that a printer is a CESQG, the hazardous waste ink is
subject to reduced RCRA requirements, provided the printer complies
with the conditions of that exemption as described in 40 CFR
261.5(g). These conditions include (but are not limited to)
complying with 40 CFR 262.11 (hazardous waste determination),
limitations on the storage of CESQG waste at the generating
facility to less than 1000 kilograms, and ensuring delivery of the
CESQG waste to one of the types of facilities listed in 40 CFR
261.5(g)(3), which includes "a facility which beneficially uses or
reuses, or legitimately recycles or reclaims its waste" (40 CFR
261.5(g)(3)(v)(A)).

If you anticipate operating a hazardous waste recycling
facility under reduced requirements because you only receive CESQG
hazardous waste, it is important that you understand that the
reduced regulatory requirements for CESQG hazardous wastes are
contingent upon the actions and determinations of many small
generators, perhaps in several states, over which you would have
limited control. For example, there may be sheet-fed lithographic
printers generating waste ink in authorized States where CESQG
waste is regulated more stringently than under the federal RCRA
regulations; or, some printers that are not CESQGs (either
knowingly or unknowingly) might send their waste ink to your
facility for recycling. If as a recycler you collect any hazardous
waste ink from non-CESQGs (e.g., one shipment from a SQG or LQG),
then the hazardous waste ink (and your recycling facility) would be
subject to the applicable requirements described earlier in this
letter under "Regulation of Hazardous Waste Recycling".

Summary

EPA supports sound and legitimate recycling of hazardous waste
wherever possible, and we laud your efforts to develop an
alternative to the disposal of hazardous waste ink. EPA also wants
to ensure that hazardous waste recycling occurs in a safe manner in
full compliance with applicable federal and State requirements. You
have suggested that the operation you propose may not be
commercially viable if certain RCRA regulations apply. We are
certainly concerned that the RCRA regulations may be discouraging
environmentally sound recycling projects. As you know, a Definition
of Solid Waste Task Force was formed last fall to address these
kinds of issues. Your attendance at the Solid Waste Forum last
April in Washington D.C., and the information you provided Nancy
Bacon-Brown of the Task Force during the meeting on August 10,
1993, was very much appreciated.

I have described how the federal hazardous waste recycling
regulations would apply to the proposed recycling operation as
described by you in your letter and in subsequent conversations
with my staff. Please note that under Section 3006 of RCRA (42
U.S.C. Section 6926), individual States can be authorized to
administer and enforce their own hazardous waste programs in lieu
of the federal program. When a State is not authorized to
administer its own program, the appropriate EPA Region administers
the program and is the appropriate contact for any case-specific
determinations. Please also note that under Section 3009 of RCRA
(42 U.S.C. Section 6929) States retain authority to promulgate
regulatory requirements that are more stringent than federal
regulatory requirements. In addition, if you still have questions
concerning how the Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations
apply to your situation, I would encourage you to continue dealing
with DOT. DOT operates a hazardous materials helpline in
Washington, D.C. at (202) 366-4488.

If you have questions about the information in this letter,
please contact Ross Elliott or Ann Codrington of my office at (202)
260-8551. Thank you for your innovative ideas.

Sincerely,

Jeffery D. Denit
Acting Director,
Office of Solid Waste

1 In the derived-from rule it states "materials that are
reclaimed from solid wastes and that are used
beneficially are not solid wastes and hence are not
hazardous wastes under this provision unless the
reclaimed material is burned for energy recovery or used
in a manner constituting disposal." 40 CFR
261.3(c)(2)(ii).

2 You stated that the printers typically use a commercially
available water/solvent mixture to clean the printing
machine, and that this reclaimed material would replace
that virgin product.