Coal-burning byproducts are not the only materials excluded from the list of strictly regulated hazardous and dangerous (B3) waste, as the government delists more wastes from other industries that are potentially harmful to humans in order to be repurposed for other products, activists have found.

Environmental group Nexus3 Foundation found that a 2021 government regulation on environmental protection did not include byproducts of the steel, iron and palm oil industries on the list of B3 materials. The policy is one of the dozens of the Job Creation Law’s derivative regulations.

Among the delisted materials are steel and nickel slag, which are obtained from the iron and steel industry and commonly contain trace amounts of toxic metals such as chromium and manganese.

The palm oil industry produces spent bleaching earth (SBE) as a byproduct. The indus...