EPA Withdraws Proposed SNURs for 18 Chemicals Made from Plastic Waste-Based Feedstocks 

On July 9, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew proposed significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 18 chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN) and a subsequent TSCA Order. 90 Fed. Reg. 30216. EPA states that it is withdrawing the proposed SNURs because it withdrew the 2022 TSCA Order that was the basis of the rules on December 18, 2024. As reported in our April 17, 2023, blog item, in April 2023, Cherokee Concerned Citizens, a community group in Pascagoula, Mississippi, filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for review of the 2022 TSCA Order. Cherokee Concerned Citizens v. EPA (No. 23-1096). Earthjustice’s April 7, 2023, press release states that EPA approved the new chemicals to make fuels “despite finding that the resulting air pollution would pose a cancer risk 250,000 times greater than what the agency typically considers unreasonable.” In September 2024, EPA filed a motion for voluntary remand, stating that it wished to withdraw the Order and reconsider the 18 PMNs covered by the Order. According to the July 9, 2025, notice, the court granted EPA’s motion on December 4, 2024, and EPA withdrew the TSCA Section 5(e) Order and associated determinations regarding the PMNs on December 18, 2024. EPA states that at the time it withdrew the TSCA Section 5(e) Order, manufacture of the chemical substances had not yet commenced. EPA notes that, in addition, since publishing the proposed SNURs, EPA has received 30 comments, including adverse ones, that encouraged the Agency to remand or modify the TSCA Section 5(e) Order and proposed SNURs. The proposed SNURs were withdrawn as of July 9, 2025. More information on the proposed SNURs is available in our June 20, 2023, memorandum.