Editor's Focus

Although both staff and members of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Washington, have been lobbying hard over the past few years for a Superfund reform bill with a key recycling-related provision, many scrap processors are still paying a heavy price under the current Superfund regulations. These processors are being retroactively penalized for practices that were legal at the time but are no longer allowed. And many Superfund cases are dragging out for years in the court system, with little or no actual cleanup occurring.

This month, Recycling Today offers a summary of current attempts to reform Superfund. We also take a look at the status of other recycling-related legislation – such as flow-control, interstate transport of solid waste, and brownfields redevelopment – currently being considered. Key players in Congress from the recycling perspective are highlighted, although scrap processors should continue contacting their own representatives and letting them know what is needed.

With a more cooperative attitude being promoted by both Congress and the Administration, some in the industry are hopeful about the chances of Superfund reform passing in the near future. Others are more skeptical. Clearly, however, the more processors who make their voices heard on this important issue, the better. Eventually, legislators will have to listen to reason and adopt some changes to the Superfund law to make it more effective and more fair to recyclers.

Cooperation is also the theme at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Washington, which is promoting a less confrontational approach to identifying and correcting safety hazards in industries such as scrap processing and recycling. This month, we cover recent efforts by the agency to streamline their regulations and their inspection procedures to be more effective and more responsive to industry’s needs.

In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for the past few years, has espoused less of a command-and-control style of regulating businesses and has adopted more of a cooperative approach.

Although all of these efforts – both on the environmental side and on the safety side – have been long in coming, we can only hope that legislators and regulators are serious in their attempts to work more closely with industry to put laws and regulations in place that are effective but are not overly cumbersome or expensive. If this can truly be accomplished, all sides will win.