Two RCRA Rules to Watch in 2025

With the Executive Branch changing hands this week, incoming EPA officials must take stock of ongoing rulemaking activity and prioritize future action to align with the new administration's goals and priorities. EPA has several hazardous waste-related rules in progress at the moment which, if they proceed as planned, will affect facilities subject to the RCRA regulations.

Details about two of the most noteworthy RCRA rules appear in the recently updated Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The Unified Agenda is a twice-yearly status report in which Federal government agencies provide a glimpse into new regulations they plan to finalize, propose, or consider in the future.

Lion Members: See Lion's full coverage of hazardous materials, EPA, and OSHA rules to watch in 2025 in this recent Member Bulletin: Unified Agenda—Regulations to Watch in 2025 

Lithium Batteries and Solar Panels as RCRA Universal Waste 

In response to a petition for rulemaking from the electric power industry, EPA plans to add hazardous waste solar panels to the universal waste regulations in 40 CFR Part 273. One major goal of the rule would be to ease regulatory burdens on generators of solar panel waste. Some states, including California, currently allow solar panels to be managed as universal waste. 

In the same rulemaking, EPA plans to propose universal waste standards specific to lithium batteries, partly to distinguish them from the types of “batteries” already managed as universal waste. New universal waste rules for lithium batteries would also improve safety, reduce fires from end-of-life batteries, and promote recycling, EPA believes.   

The agency anticipated proposing the universal waste rule for solar panels and lithium batteries in June 2025. Read more about this possible RCRA rule in the Unified Agenda for Fall 2024. 

Listing PFAS as RCRA Hazardous Constituents  

Secondly, EPA proposed a rule in February 2024 to add nine per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the list of “hazardous constituents” under RCRA, along with their salts and structural isomers. In the proposed rule, EPA explains:

“A hazardous constituent listing is a step toward a potential hazardous waste listing. To list a waste as a RCRA hazardous waste … the Agency must show that the waste contains a hazardous constituent …”

Adding to the list of hazardous constituents in 40 CFR Part 261, Appendix VIII also has implications for correction action at RCRA treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs). 

The nine PFAS proposed as RCRA hazardous constituents are (abbreviated): PFOA, PFOS, PFBS, HFPO-DA (GenX), PFNA, PFHxS, PFDA, PFHxA, and PFBA. For more details, see the February 2024 proposed rule.

According to the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda, EPA expects to release this Final Rule in July 2025.

Annual RCRA Training in 3 Learning Formats

Lion's two-day RCRA Hazardous Waste Management Workshop is updated for 2025 and coming to a location near you soon. See all upcoming workshops, live webinars, and online training for hazardous waste personnel and shippers of hazardous materials/DG at Lion.com/2025. 

If you can't get away for in person training this year, the next best thing is a live, instructor-led webinar at Lion.com. Prefer training at your own pace and on your own schedule? The interactive, self-paced online course is for you. 

Tags: hazardous waste, lithium batteries, PFAS, RCRA, solar panels