## Facts

- ILCO, Inc. (Interstate Lead Company) operated an Alabama secondary lead smelter that reclaimed lead from spent automobile batteries by removing lead plates and groups, smelting them into lead ingots, and selling the ingots.
- The removed lead plates and groups exhibited the hazardous characteristic of Extraction Procedure toxicity for lead and cadmium under EPA regulations.
- The United States (through EPA) and Alabama brought an enforcement action seeking civil penalties, cleanup costs, and injunctive relief for violations of federal and state environmental requirements, principally under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
- The district court found ILCO and its principal, Diego Maffei, liable for multiple violations, imposed civil penalties, awarded cleanup costs, and ordered compliance with applicable environmental laws.
- The district court also concluded that the reclaimed lead plates and groups were “raw materials,” not RCRA hazardous waste, because they were recycled into lead ingots.
- The United States and Alabama appealed the “raw materials” classification; ILCO and Maffei cross-appealed the penalties, cleanup costs, and related relief.

## Issues

1. Whether lead plates and groups reclaimed from spent automobile batteries for recycling are “discarded material” and therefore “solid waste” (and, if toxic, “hazardous waste”) under RCRA and EPA’s regulations.
2. Whether the district court erred in imposing civil penalties, awarding cleanup costs, and ordering injunctive compliance against ILCO and Maffei.

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court in all but one respect.
- The court reversed the ruling that the reclaimed lead components were “raw materials” outside RCRA, holding they were “solid waste” under 40 C.F.R. § 261.2 and hazardous due to EP toxicity for lead and cadmium.
- The court otherwise affirmed the findings of liability, the civil penalties, the cleanup cost awards, and the compliance-related injunctive relief.

## Legal Principles

- EPA may, by regulation, define “discarded material” to include certain “recycled material,” bringing such materials within RCRA’s definition of “solid waste.”
- A material’s economic value and planned reuse do not, by themselves, prevent it from being treated as “discarded” for RCRA purposes when it falls within EPA’s regulatory definitions.
- Once a recycled material is properly classified as “solid waste” under 40 C.F.R. § 261.2 and exhibits a hazardous characteristic (including EP toxicity for lead and cadmium), it is subject to RCRA hazardous-waste controls.
- Courts generally defer to EPA’s reasonable regulatory construction of ambiguous statutory terms within its delegated authority.

## Conclusion

The Eleventh Circuit held that lead battery plates and groups reclaimed for recycling at a secondary smelter are “discarded” within EPA’s regulatory definition and therefore constitute RCRA solid waste and hazardous waste when they exhibit toxic characteristics, while leaving intact the district court’s penalties, cleanup-cost recovery, and compliance orders.


United States v. Interstate Lead Co., 996 F.2d 1126 (11th Cir. 1993)