Is it legal for a crematory to recycle metal scrap?

The metallic scrap generated by your crematory is NOT considered hazardous material by the EPA despite what others may persuade you to believe. The EPA considers crematory metal residues as processed scrap metal, which is excluded from the definition of hazardous waste. For that reason, the Resource, Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) does NOT pass on any “cradle to the grave” liability to crematories and maintaining a storage, transportation, and disposition manifest is NOT required. All of the above applies to dental, orthopedics, plates, or any metal that comes out of the retort.

The NFDA agrees… “Cremation residues… meet the definition of processed scrap material,” “Processed scrap metal is excluded from RCRA hazardous waste regulation entirely, which means that crematories that engage [in recycling]… are not subject to RCRA… [or EPA] regulations."

The quote above is by Carol Green, the NFDA environmental compliance counsel and former assistant chief of the U.S. Justice Department’s Environmental Enforcement Section. She wrote an article in reaction to false and misleading trade publications and advertisements by whom she refers as "Trade Press." She explains that post-cremation scrap meets the definition of processed scrap and is therefore excluded from EPA’s definition of “hazardous waste”. Since the materials are not considered hazardous, no cradle to the grave liability exists. Also, no EPA manifests or storage requirements exists as post-cremation scrap does not fall under the scope of the Resource, Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

Carol Green references in her article content directly from www.USTitle40.org, a website designed and mislead. It is a convincing website and at first appears as a government publication. Carol Green debunked the contents of this publication in the Director Magazine article titled "Recycling cremation metal residues AND the risk of EPA enforcement"

We feel obligated, as a proud and responsible members of the death care industry, to keep you properly informed. We regret the existence of trade publications that may have misinterpreted information regarding recycling regulations. Unfortunately that leads to bad business and gives refiners like LGS Refining a bad name, even though the company has nothing to do with this demoralizing behavior by other recycling companies or refiners, it gives the industry a bad reputation.

Please visit www.LGSRefining.com. LGS Refining employs a proprietary state of the art reclamation process that assures the highest yields when refining your crematory metals. LGS Refining is a direct refiner, not a middle man, who has tailored its reclamation method in recovering gold, silver, palladium, platinum, chromium cobalt, and titanium. The results are unmatched.

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