ReMA offering Superfund reports to nonmembers

As it has at the beginning of other calendar years, the Washington-based Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) has announced an “open season” for the sale of Superfund Recycling Equity Act (SREA) reports assessing potential environmental liabilities at manufacturing sites that consume recycled materials.

The preparation and importance of the reports stems from the original SREA legislation signed into federal law in 1999. Leading up to the passage of that act, ReMA (then known as the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, or ISRI) lobbied for its importance to provide limitations on the financial and legal obligations of recycled materials processors and traders who provided feedstock to metals producers whose facility locations subsequently appeared on the United States Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site list.

The SREA legislation helped recycling companies have some protection from lawsuits concerning such facilities. It did not remove all obligations for the firms, however.

Processors and brokers of recycled materials maintain a responsibility to “take reasonable care” to determine the environmental compliance status of consuming facilities to which they sell material.

“The burden is on the scrap recycler to inquire as to the status of a consuming mill,” current ReMA President Robin Wiener told Recycling Today for a February 2000 feature article. “They can contact federal, state and local authorities to see if there are any existing compliance orders, and there is also a condition to ask owners about their own compliance record.”

According to ReMA, its SREA reports are “an important risk management tool and due diligence resource for your business,” with the organization recommending that its member companies order SREA reports annually for every current and prospective consuming facility to which they ship materials.

During its “open season, which runs from Jan. 1, 2026, to May 31, 2026, ReMA members can buy SREA facility reports for $85 while nonmembers can pay $400 for the same reports.

Starting June 1, 2026, those price rise to from $100 to $260 for ReMA members, depending on the age of the report.

More information on ordering reports can be found here.