BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1419
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Date of Hearing: August 25, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Luis Alejo, Chair
AB 1419
(Eggman) - As Amended August 19, 2016
SUBJECT: Hazardous waste: cathode ray tube glass
SUMMARY: Provides an exemption for used, broken cathode ray
tube (CRT) panel glass and processed CRT panel glass from the
total threshold limit concentration (TTLC) only for barium.
Specifically, this bill:
1) Defines "cathode ray tube" or "CRT" as a vacuum tube or
picture tube used to convert an electrical signal into a
visual image, and define "CRT device" as any electronic
device that contains one or more CRTs including, but not
limited to, computer monitors, televisions, cash registers,
and oscilloscopes.
2) Provides that used, broken CRT panel glass that exceeds
the total threshold limit concentration (TTLC) only for
barium is not a waste and is not subject to regulation by
DTSC, including the prohibition on the use of that glass in
a manner constituting disposal, if it is recycled and meets
DTSC regulatory requirements.
3) Provides that CRT panel glass without phosphor that
exceeds the TTLC only for barium is not a waste and is not
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subject to regulation by DTSC, including the prohibition on
the use of that glass in a manner constituting disposal, if
that glass meets state and federal regulatory requirements.
4) Authorizes CRT panel glass meeting the aforementioned
requirements and is recycled may be used only for eight
specified end uses.
5) Authorizes DTSC to prohibit any previously authorized
end use of CRT panel glass if DTSC determines that the end
use potentially poses environmental or public health harm.
Requires DTSC to notify the recyclers of the prohibition at
least 60 days prior to the effective date of the
prohibition.
6) States that used, broken CRT panel glass and processed
CRT panel glass that exceeds the TTLC only for barium and
that is recycled is not subject to any requirement
regarding export of materials.
7) States that this bill, notwithstanding the barium
threshold, does not affect, in any manner, the regulations
adopted regulating the processing of CRT panel glass for
disposal. States that this bill does not affect the
identification or classification of a waste that is derived
from the eight end use products listed.
8) Prohibits the exemptions in the bill from applying to
any CRT panel glass that is used to manufacture any product
or packaging intended to be used for food or food products
for which DTSC declares that that use may have a potential
adverse impact on human health.
EXISTING LAW:
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1) Excludes used CRTs and CRT glass from the hazardous
waste regulations under the federal Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA). (40 Code of Federal Regulations
261.4(a)(22))
2) Establishes the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003
(EWRA) to provide a cost-free and convenient means for
consumers to return, recycle, and ensure the safe and
environmentally sound disposal of covered electronic
devices. Requires DTSC and Department of Resources,
Recovery and Recycling (CalRecycle) to jointly establish
and implement an electronics waste (e-waste) recycling
program pursuant to EWRA. (Public Resources Code (PRC) §
42460, et seq.)
3) Requires all covered electronic waste (CEW), including
any residuals from the processing of the waste, to be
handled in compliance with all applicable statutes and
regulations. (PRC§ 42476 (f) (2))
4) Prohibits the disposal of hazardous waste in a solid
waste landfill and specifies requirements for the proper
handling, transportation, treatment and disposal of
hazardous waste, except as exempted or otherwise classified
by law and regulation. (Health and Safety Code (H&S) §
25148.5)
5) Authorizes DTSC to adopt, by regulation alternative
management standards for disposal of a hazardous waste that
would be classified as hazardous solely because it exceeds
TTLC. (H&S § 25141.5)
6) Authorizes DTSC to exclude some recyclable materials
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from classification as a waste. (H&S § 25143.2)
FISCAL EFFECT: According to the Senate Appropriations Committee,
enactment of this bill could result in approximately $85,000
(Electronic Waste Recovery and Recycling Account) for two years
for DTSC to develop regulations, and minor, if any, costs to
CalRecycle.
COMMENTS:
Need for the bill: According to the author, new liquid crystal
display (LCD) and light-emitting diode technology for
televisions and monitor screens has taken over the market and
demand for old-fashioned CRT devices has dropped dramatically.
The end-use market for CRT glass generated from recycling scrap
CRT's has dried up and recyclers across the nation are
struggling with what to do with the glass. Complicating the
issue even further is that that the world's last CRT
manufacturer, which recycled as much as 57% of the funnel and
panel glass generated in the country, announced that it would
discontinue CRT production this year, eliminating one of the
last outlets for this material. That has left many recyclers
resorting to stockpiling this material in hopes of finding new
outlets in the future.
The author contends that the regulatory pathway for using these
end markets has not been clearly developed for non-leaded CRT
panel glass. The uncertainty leaves recyclers afraid to do
anything other than landfill or stockpile this material, even
though it was collected for recycling.
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The author's intent with AB 1419 is to reduce the environmental
risk inherent in the stockpiling and export of used monitors by
creating a recycling framework for CRT panel glass.
Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT): CRTs are the video display components
of televisions and computer monitors. CRTs have relatively high
concentrations of lead and phosphors, both of which are
necessary for the display.
CRTs are made from two types of glass joined by a high lead
glass solder known as frit (glaze for ceramic tile). The screen
glass (panel glass) is typically lead-free. The rear part of the
CRT known as funnel glass contains around 20% lead and the glass
frit contains up to 90% lead. The glass in CRTs typically
contains enough lead to require managing it as hazardous waste
under certain circumstances. Barium oxide is used in CRTs to
provide radiation protection in the neck and funnel.
Barium: According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, barium has been found to potentially cause
gastrointestinal disturbances and muscular weakness when people
are exposed to it at low levels. Barium oxide is also a skin
irritant. If it contacts the skin or the eyes or is inhaled it
causes pain and redness. However, it is more dangerous when
ingested. It can cause nausea, diarrhea, muscle paralysis,
cardiac arrhythmia, and can cause death.
California has established a procedure with set limits for
hazardous waste characterization to identify levels of hazardous
characteristics, such as barium. When a waste exceeds the TTLC
limits for barium, it is classified as hazardous. For CRT glass,
the barium limit is 10,000 mg/kg.
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E-Waste recycling in California: SB 20 (Sher, Chapter 526,
Statutes of 2003), known as the Electronic Waste Recycling Act
(EWRA) of 2003, was enacted to eliminate electronic waste
stockpiles and legacy devices, including waste CRT devices and
CRTs, by providing a comprehensive and innovative system for
their reuse, recycling, and proper and legal disposal. The EWRA
established a statewide program to promote and fund the
collection and recycling of hazardous electronic devices
beginning July 1, 2004. Under EWRA, retailers collect an advance
recycling fee on covered electronic devices at the time of
purchase.
CRTs have largely been superseded by newer display technologies
such as LCD and plasma. Although a mainstay of display
technology for decades, CRT-based computer monitors and
televisions are essentially a dying technology. The demand for
CRT screens has dropped precipitously since 2000, and this
falloff has accelerated since then. The rapid advances and
falling prices of LCD flat panel technology, first for computer
monitors and then for televisions, has been the key factor in
the demise of competing display technologies such as CRT,
rear-projection, and plasma display.
Approximately 200 million pounds of TVs are recycled annually in
California. About half of those include CRTs, which means
California's e-waste recycling program has generated more than
100 million pounds of residual CRT glass annually since it began
operation in 2005.
A key component of the EWRA has been a requirement that the
derived CRT glass be shipped to a destination authorized to
further treat that material, under the assumption (and implicit
hazardous waste management requirement) that the material would
eventually find an appropriate recycling application.
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The reduced demand for CRTs has diminished the number of
operating lead smelters and glass-to-glass recyclers accepting
CRTs. Today, there is only one lead smelter in the United States
and one glass-to-glass recycler, Videocon, located in India.
Absent recyclers to ship collected CRTs to, e-waste recyclers
are estimated to be stockpiling 17 million pounds of CRT glass
in California. It is highly likely that the 17 million figure is
artificially low, as state and federal regulations prohibit
storage of hazardous materials for more than one year, so many
who are stockpiling CRT glass are likely underreporting how much
is being stored.
One remedy to the problem is to identify, or clarify legally
approved end uses for CRTs. Aside from televisions, products
that CRTs could be recycled and used as feedstock for include
those listed in the bill.
Creating regulatory pathways to recycle CRT glass in California
is in line with the intent of the EWRA, and consistent with the
expectations of California consumers who pay a recycling fee on
all covered electronic devices and expect that they get
recycled.
DTSC regulations: DTSC's regulations prior to 2014 authorized
treatment of CRT devices and CRTs pursuant to specified
standards, which require that a universal waste handler who
treats CRTs shall "treat CRTs only for the purpose of recycling
one or more types of CRT glass and ensure that all the CRT glass
is reclaimed at a CRT glass manufacturer or at a primary or
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secondary lead smelter." Consequently, a person may not treat
CRTs to generate CRT glass using the treatment methodologies if
the purpose of the treatment is for recycling the CRT glass by
means other than at a CRT glass manufacturer or at a primary or
secondary lead smelter or for disposal.
DTSC has acknowledged that its universal waste regulations
required that CRT glass be sent only to a CRT glass manufacturer
or a primary or secondary lead smelter for recycling, which
limited potential for CRT recycling given the lack of facilities
that accepted CRT glass.
Therefore, CRT glass generated pursuant to DTSC's regulations
prior to 2014 led to CRT and CRT glass stockpiling.
Consequently, millions of pounds of hazardous waste CRTs and CRT
glass either remain at locations across California or have been
shipped out of state, potentially for unauthorized use or
disposal. Additionally, due to the loss of a viable CRT
manufacturing market, which currently only exists overseas (only
one CRT manufacturer is currently operating worldwide), over the
last 2 years, CRT glass exported out of California is most
likely not being recycled consistent with DTSC's current
universal waste regulations.
To encourage proper management of CRTs and CRT glass and improve
the overall effectiveness of the EWRA, DTSC adopted emergency
regulations in 2012 and re-adopted them in 2014 to expand the
options for the ultimate disposition of CRTs and CRT glass.
The regulations were intended to add new disposition options
including disposal and other types of recycling (other than CRT
glass manufacturing and lead smelting) and attempt to identify
and allow new/viable recycling options.
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According to the author, this regulatory scheme has proven
difficult for recyclers to implement, and hasn't created
sufficient viable pathways for this material. The author states,
"the current California regulations limit the options for
recycling leaded funnel glass to smelting, glass to glass
recycling for the production of new CRTs (currently only done by
one company in India), or landfill disposal. Although non-leaded
panel glass should be available for many other uses, the
regulatory pathway for using these end markets has not been
clearly developed."
End uses for exempted CRT glass: According to Kleen Blast
Abrasives, an industrial byproduct and recycled product
manufacturer in Danville, CA, "Because there is no list of
alternative approved recycling options or destinations,
recyclers must make their own determination and are thus are at
risk of being deemed out of compliance and found in violation of
the hazardous waste regulations by DTSC for which they could be
assessed a large fine. Even worse, a regulatory violation is
very damaging to a recycler's reputation." Therefore, according
to Kleen Blast Abrasives and other CRT recyclers in the
industry, it is important that California enact laws that
achieve the objective of providing legitimate recycling outlets
for electronic waste and CRT glass in order to prevent these
materials from being stockpiled and/or landfilled if recycling
options cannot be located.
The bill specifies eight uses for which CRT glass qualified
under this bill is recycled and can be used, including:
1) Tiles, including floor or wall tiles;
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2) Fiberglass;
3) Radiation shielding glass;
4) Decorative glass;
5) Bricks;
6) Cast concrete;
7) Blasting media;
8) Construction block; and,
9) Any other end uses identified by DTSC, in consultation
with CalRecycle, that pose no risk to the public health and
safety.
The intent of this section of the bill is to clarify specific
options that CRT glass can be recycled into in California, which
would create a market for CRT glass to make use of a material
that can be made into useful products and prevent further
stockpiling.
Ensuring the safety of the presence of barium in the final
products: The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US
EPA) requires a Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure
(TCLP) test, which is a chemical analysis that simulates
leaching in landfill conditions. The test is used to determine
if a waste is characteristically hazardous and whether it would
leach hazardous constituents in extreme conditions. While
California enforces the federal TCLP regulations concerning
toxicity, it applies an additional set of leaching procedures,
called the Total Threshold Limit Concentration (TTLC).
The TTLC is used when determining the hazardous waste
characterization under California state regulations.
Specifically, the TTLC analysis identifies the presence of the
hazardous constituent and determines the total concentration of
the constituent.
The Soluble Threshold Limit Concentration (STLC) test, like the
TCLP test, is a leaching test intended to simulate the
conditions that may be present in a landfill where water may
pass through the landfill waste and travel into the groundwater,
carrying the soluble materials with it. Testing leachability is
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important because the total content level of a constituent, like
barium, is not always indicative of the soluble amount of the
constituent that will leach.
AB 1419 is exempting cleaned CRT glass from the TTLC
requirement, but CRT glass would still be required to pass the
federal TCLP test for leachability. If the CRT glass passes the
TCPL test, the barium cannot be liberated from the glass; in
other words, the test indicates that the barium cannot be
released from the CRT glass and into the environment. The
leachability is the primary concern, and that testing protocol
will still be maintained.
Will end products be hazardous products, too? If those end use
products - reflective glass beads, bricks, insulation, etc. -
are made with barium-containing CRT glass, those products would
eventually become a hazardous waste. The challenge is knowing
that information at the time of disposal.
In addition to testing in accordance with US EPA requirements
for leachability (which would provide protections for workers in
the manufacturing process), manufactures are required to conduct
and create a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for all products
that they manufacture with information regarding the levels of
constituents in the products they produce. Wholesalers and
distributors are required to provide a copy of the MSDS with the
products that they sell to all of their customers. Therefore,
any information on barium levels will be provided to the
consumer. However, the individual or company removing or
demolishing any facility with these products and responsible for
the waste may have no way of knowing that the waste, in fact,
contains high levels of barium unless a test is conducted.
What about the CRT market across the county? CRT glass and used
CRTs that are recycled or exported for recycling are not
considered solid or hazardous waste under the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) if certain conditions are
met (40 Code of Federal Regulations 261.4(a)(22)).
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However, under Section 2006 of RCRA, individual states can be
authorized to administer and enforce their own hazardous waste
programs in lieu of the federal program. RCRA authorizes
California to promulgate regulatory requirements that are more
stringent than the federal regulatory requirements. As such,
California has approved stronger standards for CRT recycling,
and is the only state that regulates CRT glass as hazardous
waste when recycled, giving CRT collectors in California a
stricter standard that the rest of the nation.
Despite the federal lenience for CRT recycling afforded to the
other states without more state-specific regulation, California
CEW collectors cannot ship CRT devices/CRT glass to those other
state's markets because of an EWRA requirement, pursuant to
Public Resources Code § 42476 (f)(2), that the collected
materials must be managed in accordance with California
hazardous waste laws. Absent the glass-to-glass recycler in
India accepting feedstock, this leaves California CEW collectors
stuck with finding recycling options in-state.
However, several companies have indicated they would be
consumers of CRT glass if AB 1419 is approved.
Kleen Blast Abrasives would have a capacity to purchase and use
between 5,000 and 15,000 tons of CRT glass per year. Fireclay
also indicated it could use upwards of 1,000 tons of CRT glass
per year.
While the intent of AB 1419 is to stimulate a CRT glass
recycling market in California, it would also serve to shake-up
the current stockpiles of CRT glass. CAMACHO, a glass recycling
company in Spain, currently accepts CRT glass from at least 15
US states, but not California because of the prohibition on
exporting. CAMACHO has stated it has capacity to accept and
manage approximately 240 million pounds of glass per year, and
could likely accept more than 60 million pounds of CRT glass
from California e-waste recyclers should AB 1419 become law
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loosening the TTLC noose on the CRT glass market.
Senate amendments: This bill was substantially amended in the
Senate and the Assembly approved version of this bill was
deleted. This bill, as amended in the Senate, is inconsistent
with Assembly actions and the provisions of this bill, as
amended in the Senate, have not been heard in an Assembly policy
committee.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
Californians Against Waste - sponsor
All eWaste, Inc.
Association of California Recycling Industries
Cali Resources, Inc.
California Association of Local Conservation Corps
California Electronic Asset Recovery
California League of Conservation Voters
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Cal Micro Recycling
Ecology Action
ECS Refining
Electronic Recyclers International
E-Recycling of California
Environmental Working Group
Fireclay Tile
Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), West Coast
Chapter
Kleen Blast Abrasives
Marin County Hazardous & Solid Waste Management Joint Powers
Authority
Napa Recycling & Waste Services
Northern California Recycling Association (NCRA)
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Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC)
Sonoma County AB 939 Local Task Force
Sonoma County Waste Management Agency
Stopwaste
Technologies Displays Americas, LLC
Tycoon Materials, Inc. DBA Happy Recyclers
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Paige Brokaw / E.S. & T.M. / (916) 319-3965
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