A Need for Great Voices

Take action to change the EPA’s NHSM regulation

By John Adelman, President, CMRA

It has become apparent the U.S. En-vironmental Protection Agency’s Non Haz-ardous Secondary Mat-erials (NHSM) rule is a poorly conceived regulation that will negatively affect the use of waste materials for energy recovery in the United States. This includes the use of C&D biomass into incinerators and cement kilns, which is a common market for the C&D recycling industry. As has been reported in these pages, the Construction Materials Recycling Assoc-iation (CMRA) has been highly active in trying to help change the regulation so that it does not kill off the waste fuels market. That includes working with a large coalition of trade associations in a cooperative effort to convince the EPA it needs to make these changes. To its credit, the EPA realizes it made a mistake and has been working with the coalition to develop a process to allow the use of the fuels to continue, including a “concept paper” to solve the situation.

This is all a result of the intense advocacy efforts of the CMRA Issues & Education Fund (CMRA I&E) working with the larger group in a way that provides a bigger bang than any one individual company could ever do. However, there are many problems with the current proposal being drafted by the EPA, and it is almost a sure thing the concept paper will be attacked by the environmental non-profits, which have not historically been supportive to recycling in general and C&D in particular. In addition, The CMRA I&E has joined another coalition of industries affected by the NHSM rule to instigate litigation to promote the correction of the regulation. We are fortunate to have Susan Bodine, a former deputy administrator of the EPA, to represent C&D recyclers in this fight. She has done an excellent job promoting our interests to maintain an open C&D biomass market free of overregulation.

That is why the CMRA I&E is working with the aforementioned coalition to create and support federal legislation that will provide the EPA the direction it needs to protect the waste fuel to energy market. This legislation has nothing to do with MSW to energy generation, which has its own issues. Instead, these two bills, U.S. House 2250 and Senate Bill 1392 lists several virtually homogenous fuels, such as C&D wood, that will be exempt from the rigorous and overburdening regulation of the NHSM rule. This bill will be the best for the C&D recycling industry. Indeed, the legislation, also known as the Collins-Wyden Bill after the U.S. Senators Susan Collins R-ME and Ron Wyden D-OR who originally introduced it, already has several senate co-sponsors:

Democrats
Kohl (WI)
Landrieu (LA) (original co-sponsor)
Nelson, Bill (FL)
Pryor (AR) (original co-sponsor)
Webb (VA)
Wyden (OR) (original co-sponsor)

Republicans
Alexander (TN) (original co-sponsor)
Blunt (MO)
Boozman (AR)
Burr (NC)
Chambliss (GA)
Cochran (MS)
Collins (ME) (lead sponsor)
Corker (TN)
Cornyn (TX)
Isakson (GA)
Johnson (WI)
Murkowski (AK)
Risch (ID)
Shelby (AL)
Toomey (PA) (original co-sponsor)
Vitter (LA)
Wicker (MS)

Despite all that, S.1392 won’t pass itself. There needs to be support from the outside to move this forward. When I first learned about the proposed legislation, I contacted the offices of my two senators in Maine. One was Susan Collins, sponsor of the bill. Basically, I thanked them for their support of our industry. Then I contacted Olympia Snowe’s office and urged her to support the bill and to consider becoming a co-sponsor. Sen. Snowe has long been a supporter of recycling, and this bill should be easy for her to support.

But now we need you to do the same. Contact your state’s U.S. senators and tell them to support S.1392 that supports the use of C&D biomass, as well as other waste materials as a fuel product. There are already enough state and local regulations on the use of these fuels, adding this federal oversight is unnecessary and its restrictive nature will severely curtail their use. Using waste materials as fuel reduces the country’s reliance on fossil fuels. The CMRA is doing its part to push this legislation forward, but the more voices Congress hears on this issue, the more it is likely to pass the law that will support C&D biomass. We as an industry need to take these actions to ensure our market opportunities remain as robust as possible.

Please feel free to contact the CMRA at 630-585-7530 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

Besides serving as president of the CMRA, John Adelman is presidet and CEO of CPRC Group, Scarborough, Maine.

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