## Facts

- EPA issued regulations revising the definition of “solid waste” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), making certain “secondary materials” subject to hazardous-waste controls.
- The rule treated some secondary materials that were reclaimed and reused within an industry’s ongoing production process as “solid waste,” based on EPA’s view that such materials could present waste-like risks.
- Mining and petroleum industry petitioners generated by-products, sludges, and similar materials that were routinely returned to production as inputs rather than disposed of.
- Petitioners sought judicial review in the D.C. Circuit, arguing EPA exceeded RCRA authority because these in-process materials were not “discarded material” and therefore not “solid waste” under the statute.
- The consolidated petitions challenged the portions of the rule that extended RCRA jurisdiction to continuously reused in-process secondary materials.

## Issues

1. Whether RCRA’s term “solid waste,” defined to include “other discarded material,” authorizes EPA to regulate in-process secondary materials that are reclaimed and reused within an ongoing industrial production process.
2. Whether EPA’s interpretation of “discarded” to reach such in-process recycled materials is permissible given RCRA’s text, structure, and purpose.

## Decision

- The D.C. Circuit granted the petitions for review in relevant part and vacated the challenged portions of EPA’s rule.
- The court held EPA exceeded its statutory authority by regulating as “solid waste” in-process secondary materials that had not been discarded.
- The court construed “discarded material” to cover materials that have entered, or are about to enter, the waste disposal stream (e.g., disposed of, abandoned, or thrown away), not materials still serving a role in an ongoing production process.
- The court declined to defer to EPA’s broader interpretation because it conflicted with the statute’s text and the waste-disposal focus of RCRA.

## Legal Principles

- Under RCRA, EPA’s hazardous-waste authority depends on whether the material is “solid waste,” which in turn requires “discarding” within the meaning of “other discarded material.”
- “Discarded” is interpreted in its ordinary sense in RCRA’s context: material that has been disposed of, abandoned, or otherwise released from productive use into the waste management stream.
- Secondary materials that are continuously recycled and reused within an ongoing production process are not “discarded” merely because similar materials may be discarded in other situations.
- Agency expertise does not permit expanding regulatory jurisdiction beyond the statute’s limits where the text and structure confine coverage to materials implicated in waste disposal.

## Conclusion

The court invalidated EPA’s attempt to regulate continuously reused in-process secondary materials as “solid waste” under RCRA, holding that such materials are outside EPA’s hazardous-waste jurisdiction unless and until they are actually discarded into the waste disposal stream.


American Mining Cong. v. EPA, 824 F.2d 1177 (D.C. Cir. 1987)