As some of you may know, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Final Rule, Increasing Recycling: Adding Aerosol Cans to the Universal Waste Regulations, was signed by EPA’s Administrator on November 11, 2019, and should be published in the Federal Register in the very near future. A pre-publication version of the Final Rule can be found on EPA’s website at https://www.epa.gov/hw/increasing-recycling-adding-aerosol-cans-universal-waste-regulations
Because Virginia is an EPA-authorized state, changes in regulations under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) do not become effective in Virginia until they are approved by the Virginia Waste Management Board, incorporated into the Virginia Hazardous Waste Management Regulations (VHWMR), advertised for public comment, and become effective on a designated date. In some cases, rules that are finalized by EPA are less stringent than existing regulations, and are not required to be adopted by states. The Aerosol Can Final Rule is a less stringent Final Rule, and it has not yet been determined if Virginia will adopt this rule as written.
Until the time at which the rule becomes effective in Virginia, generators of spent aerosol cans should continue to manage these cans as hazardous waste, properly manage them on site in accordance with the provisions in Part 262 of the VHWMR, and properly dispose of the cans at a hazardous waste treatment, storage, and/or disposal facility, or send them to a RCRA recycler. Please keep watching our web site for updates on the Aerosol Can Final Rule.