Resolution 09-7 

Approved September 22, 2009 

Whitefish, Montana 

Revised March 23, 2010 

Sausalito, California 

As certified by 

R. Steven Brown 

Executive Director 

MEANING OF “SOLID WASTE” UNDER THE RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND 

RECOVERY ACT (RCRA) AS IT APPLIES TO NON-HAZARDOUS WASTE 

PROGRAMS 

WHEREAS, on January 2, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) 

published an “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking - Identification of Non-Hazardous 

Materials That Are Solid Waste” (FR Vol. 74 No. 1), to address the issue of which non-hazardous 

materials are or are not “solid waste” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 

(RCRA) and to assist U.S. EPA in developing certain standards under sections 112 and 129 of the 

Clean Air Act; and 

WHEREAS, as a part of the rulemaking, U.S. EPA is considering whether materials such as 

whole waste tires used in combustion devices should be classified as solid waste under RCRA, 

thus requiring processing (e.g., chipping or shredding) prior to use as a fuel in combustion 

devices; and 

WHEREAS, some states with independent waste tire programs have suggested that the federal 

definition of solid waste under RCRA should be amended to exclude whole tires so that no 

chipping or shredding is required prior to use as a fuel in combustion devices; and 

WHEREAS, states that do not have independent waste tire statutes are concerned about their 

ability to regulate whole tires as solid waste if whole tires are excluded from the definition of 

solid waste; and 

WHEREAS, in either case, states are operating waste tire disposal programs that are protective of 

the environment. 

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL OF 

THE STATES: 

Urges U.S. EPA to create a subcategory under section 129 of the Clean Air Act (CAA) rules for 

combustion of whole waste tires as alternative fuel and regulate this combustion similarly to the 

CAA, section 112 standard for maximum achievable control technology (MACT), or, in the 

alternative, exclude whole tires from the definition of solid waste at the point of combustion (see 

attachment). 
Attachment to Resolution 09-7 

Proposed statutory and/or regulatory amendment at 42 U.S.C. sec. 6903(27) and/or 40 

CFR 157.2:

 “Solid waste” means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, 

water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material 

including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, 

commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does 

not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials 

in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to 

permits under section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended (86 

Stat. 880), or source, special nuclear, or byproduct material as defined by the Atomic 

Energy Act of 1954, as amended (68 Stat. 923), or combustion of whole tires that have 

been recovered or diverted from the solid waste stream and used as legitimate alternative 

fuel pursuant to an established state waste tire program.