In a final rule, the EPA has added three categories of non-hazardous secondary materials (NHSMs)—construction and demolition (C&D) wood, paper recycling residuals, and creosote-treated railroad ties—to the initial list of four categories it published in a 2013 rule. NHSMs in these seven categories can be burned in combustion units as nonwaste fuels without the owner of the unit first demonstrating to the EPA that the materials meet the regulatory legitimacy criteria for a fuel and that they are not engaging in sham recycling to avoid certain regulations.
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Secondary materials are any materials that are not the primary product of a manufacturing or commercial process and can include post-consumer material, off-specification commercial chemical products or manufacturing chemical intermediates, postindustrial material, and scrap. An NHSM is a secondary material that, when discarded, would not be identified as a hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).