BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 2748 SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Senator Jerry Hill, Chair 2013-2014 Regular Session BILL NO: AB 2748 AUTHOR: Committee on Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials AMENDED: April 21, 2014 FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: June 18, 2014 URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Joanne Roy SUBJECT : HAZARDOUS WASTE: BUSINESS PLANS SUMMARY : Existing law : 1)Prohibits a person from disposing of, or attempting to dispose of, liquid latex paint or oil-based paint on the land or into the waters of the state unless authorized by applicable provisions of law. (Health and Safety Code (HSC) §25217.1) 2)Authorizes recyclable latex paint to be accepted at any location including, but not limited to, a permanent household hazardous waste collection facility, if specified conditions are met, including that the owner or operator of the location has a hazardous materials business plan (HMBP) that meets statutory requirements. (HSC §25217.2) 3)Authorizes a location that is authorized to accept recyclable latex paint to also accept oil-based paint if additional following conditions are met, including that the collection location is established and operates under an architectural paint stewardship plan approved by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle). (HSC §25217.2.1.) 4)Provides that, in order to protect the public health and safety and the environment, it is necessary to establish business and area plans relating to the handling and release or threatened release of hazardous materials. (HSC §25500) AB 2748 Page 2 5)Requires a business to establish and implement a business plan for emergency response to a release or threatened release of a hazardous material if the business meets specified conditions regarding the hazardous materials the business may handle. (HSC §25507) 6)Requires the certified unified program agency (CUPA), or other authorized agency, to implement HMBP and area plans. (HSC §25502) 7)Provides that the purpose of the architectural paint recovery program established in statute is to require paint manufacturers to develop and implement a program to collect, transport, and process postconsumer paint to reduce the costs and environmental impacts of the disposal of postconsumer paint in this state. (Public Resources Code (PRC) §48700) 8)Requires a manufacturer of architectural paint sold in this state to, individually or through a stewardship organization, submit an architectural paint stewardship plan to CalRecycle to develop and implement a recovery program to reduce the generation of postconsumer architectural paint, promote the reuse of postconsumer architectural paint, and manage the end-of-life of postconsumer architectural paint, in an environmentally sound fashion, including collection, transportation, processing, and disposal. (PRC §48702) 9)Prohibits a manufacturer or retailer from selling or offering for sale in this state architectural paint to any person in this state unless the manufacturer participates in a CalRecyle-approved architectural paint stewardship program. (PRC §48702) 10)Requires, on or before April 1, 2012, a manufacturer or designated stewardship organization to submit an architectural paint stewardship plan to CalRecycle. Requires the plan to address the coordination of the architectural paint stewardship program with existing local household hazardous waste (HHW) collection programs, as specified, and to include goals to reduce the generation of postconsumer paint, to promote the reuse of postconsumer paint, and for the proper end-of-life management of AB 2748 Page 3 postconsumer paint. (PRC §48703) 11)Authorizes any retailer to participate, on a voluntary basis, as a paint collection point pursuant to the paint stewardship program if the retailer's paint collection location meets specified conditions. (PRC §48703) This bill provides that a business that handles paint that will be recycled or otherwise managed under an architectural paint recovery program approved by CalRecycle is only required to establish and implement an HMBP if it handles postconsumer (leftover) paint above specified quantities. Specifically, this bill : 1) Deletes the statutory requirement that the owner or operator of a location that is authorized to accept recyclable latex paint have an HMBP, as specified. 2) Provides that a business that handles paint that will be recycled or otherwise managed under an architectural paint recovery program approved by CalRecycle is only required to establish and implement an HMBP if it handles at any one time during the reporting year a total weight of 10,000 pounds of solid or a total volume of 1,000 gallons of liquid paint. 3) Prohibits a CUPA from imposing a fee on a business that is implementing an architectural paint recovery program approved by CalRecycle and that is exempt from HMBP requirements for the cost of processing that exemption. COMMENTS : 1) Purpose of Bill . According to the author, this bill encourages the take-back of used paint by eliminating duplicative reporting requirements on businesses that are part of the CalRecycle-approved paint stewardship program. Current law requires businesses that handle hazardous waste, including used paint collected under California's paint stewardship program, to submit HMBP to the local CUPA. Both the HMBP requirements and the CalRecycle paint stewardship program include safe management requirements AB 2748 Page 4 for collected paint. This bill removes the HMBP requirement on businesses whose collection of a specified amount of used paint, as part of the paint stewardship program, triggers the requirement to submit an HMBP. 2) Background: Paint . Latex and oil-based paints are considered hazardous waste in California, making their disposal in a solid waste landfill prohibited. Paint contains resins, solvents, pigments, and additives. While latex paint is less hazardous than oil-based, its ingredients are hazardous to public health and the environment. Paint should not be allowed to "dry out" for disposal, or poured down storm drains or into the sewer system. Postconsumer paint is one of the largest sources of household hazardous waste (HHW) in California. 3) California's Paint Stewardship Program . According to CalRecycle, Californians generate millions of gallons of leftover paint each year. Prior to the passage of the California Paint Stewardship Law (AB 1343 (Huffman), Chapter 420, Statutes of 2010), the only way for consumers to properly manage their leftover paint was through local, taxpayer-funded HHW programs. However, due to the immense cost to manage household hazardous waste, local programs typically can only afford to serve between five to ten percent of the residents in their jurisdictions. Historically, paint has represented almost one-third of the material collected through local HHW programs and costs local government millions of dollars to manage. AB 1343 created a postconsumer paint management program for the reuse, recycling, and proper disposal of paint. The structure of the program was developed thorough a seven-year, multi-stakeholder, national Paint Product Stewardship Initiative. California became one of the first states in the nation to implement such a program. PaintCare Inc., a non-profit organization established by the American Coatings Association to implement AB 1343 and other states' paint stewardship programs, has set up nearly 600 drop-off sites for postconsumer paint at paint retailers, hardware stores, and other facilities throughout California. According to PaintCare, as it continues its AB 2748 Page 5 efforts to increase the number of drop-off sites, it has encountered many smaller paint stores and facilities that have declined participation in the program because participation would trigger HMBP requirements to which they are not otherwise subject. Many of these sites are in rural or otherwise underserved areas, making their participation even more important to the success of the paint stewardship program. 4) Streamlining the HMBP process . The purpose of AB 2748 is to eliminate duplicative reporting requirements on paint drop-off sites by raising the current HMBP exemption limits (to 1,000 gallons from 550 and 10,000 pounds from 5,000) for paint that will be managed under the paint stewardship program. This change will exempt smaller product take-back sites from the requirement to file an HMBP, if their participation in the paint stewardship program is what triggers their HMBP reporting requirement. Safe handling and storage of paint is required and monitored through the CalRecycle-approved stewardship plans. Supporters assert that the HMBP exemption will encourage smaller facilities (generally retail sites where paint is purchased) to participate as public drop-off sites for leftover product as part of the paint stewardship program. SOURCE : California Association of Environmental Health Administrators (CAEHA) PaintCare SUPPORT : American Coatings Association Behr Process Corporation Californians Against Waste Paint Council Network Rudd Company, Inc. Rust-Oleum Corporation Sherwin-Williams Company Valspar OPPOSITION : None on file AB 2748 Page 6