BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2457
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Date of Hearing: April 24, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Bob Wieckowski, Chair
AB 2457 (Valadao) - As Amended: April 16, 2012
SUBJECT : Solid waste: vehicles: appliances.
SUMMARY : Requires the Department of Resources Recycling and
Recovery (Cal Recycle) to convene an interagency working group
to determine whether the disposal of end-of-life vehicles and
appliances that are being compacted and exported for recycling
is being managed in compliance with the law. Specifically,
this bill :
1)Requires, on or before March 31, 2013, Cal Recycle to convene
an interagency working group consisting of staff from Cal
Recycle, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC),
and other appropriate departments within the California
Environmental Protection Agency (Cal EPA) or the Natural
Resources Agency to determine whether the disposal of
end-of-life vehicles and appliances that are being compacted
and exported for purposes of recycling is being managed in
compliance with law.
2)Requires on or before October 31, 2014, the working group to
prepare and submit to Cal Recycle a report of its findings.
3)Requires the report to include findings on all of the
following:
a) The manner in which the discarded end-of-life vehicles
and appliances are being managed in accordance with state
and federal law prior to export;
b) The risks to public health and the environment posed by
the mismanagement of the end-of-life vehicles and
appliances in the state prior to export;
c) The economic impacts of improper management of the
end-of-life vehicles and appliances on the state's scrap
metal recycling infrastructure; and,
d) Any other issues the working group deems appropriate
regarding the disposal of the end-of-life vehicles and
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appliances.
4)Requires the report to include recommendations, as necessary,
to address the findings.
5)Requires Cal Recycle to post the report on its Internet Web
site.
6)Sunsets the provisions of the bill on January 1, 2018.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Pursuant to the California Integrated Waste Management Act of
1989 (Public Resources Code (PRC) � 40000 et seq.):
a) Defines "materials that require special handling" as all
of the following:
i) Sodium azide canisters in unspent airbags that are
determined to be hazardous.
ii) Encapsulated polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), Di
(2-Ethylhexylphthalate) (DEHP), and metal encased
capacitors, in major appliances.
iii) Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydro
chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and other non-CFC
replacement refrigerants, injected in
air-conditioning/refrigeration units.
iv) Used oil in major appliances.
v) Mercury found in switches and temperature control
devices in major appliances.
vi) Any other material that, when removed from a major
appliance, is a hazardous waste regulated pursuant to
Hazardous Waste Control Law (PRC) � 42167).
b) Requires materials that require special handling to be
removed from major appliances and vehicles in which they
are contained prior to crushing for transport or
transferring to a baler or shredder for recycling. (PRC �
42175). Failure to comply with this requirement is a
violation of Hazardous Waste Control Law (PRC � 42175.1).
c) Provides that any hazardous material that becomes a
hazardous waste when released or removed from any major
appliance and any mercury-containing motor vehicle light
switch that becomes a hazardous waste when removed from any
vehicle shall be managed pursuant to Hazardous Waste
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Control Law (PRC � 42175.1).
d) Prohibits a solid waste facility from accepting for
disposal any major appliance, vehicle, or other metallic
discard that contains enough metal to be economically
feasible to salvage as determined by the solid waste
facility operator (PRC � 42170).
2)Pursuant to Hazardous Waste Control Law (Health and Safety
Code (HSC) � 25100 et seq.):
a) Prohibits a person, other than a certified appliance
recycler, from removing materials that require special
handling from a major appliance (HSC � 25211.1).
b) Prohibits materials that require special handling that
are contained in major appliances from being disposed of at
a solid waste facility. Requires materials that require
special handling to be removed from major appliances prior
to the appliance being crushed, baled, shredded, sawed or
sheared apart, disposed of, or otherwise processed in a
manner that could result in the release of, or prevent the
removal of, materials that require special handling (HSC �
25212 (a)).
c) Provides that a person who removes from a major
appliance any material that requires special handling that
is a hazardous waste, is a hazardous waste generator and
requires that person to comply with all laws applicable to
generators of hazardous waste (HSC � 25212 (b)).
d) Authorizes DTSC to regulate hazardous wastes removed
from discarded appliances (HSC � 25211.5).
e) Provides that any mercury-containing motor vehicle light
switch removed from a motor vehicle is subject to universal
waste regulations, and any other applicable regulation
adopted by DTSC, including, but not limited to, standards
for the handling of hazardous waste, standards for
destination facilities, requirements for the tracking of
universal waste shipments, import requirements, and the
regulations governing different products (HSC � 25214.6).
f) Requires DTSC to coordinate with local agencies to
provide technical assistance to businesses engaged in the
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dismantling or crushing of motor vehicles concerning the
safe removal and proper disposal of mercury-containing
light switches from motor vehicles and coordinate and
encourage entities to offer to the public the replacement
and recycling of mercury-containing motor vehicle light
switches (HSC � 25214.7).
3)Pursuant to the Dry Cell Battery Management Act (PRC � 15000
et seq.), prohibits a person from selling or offering for sale
a vehicle manufactured on or after January 1, 2005, that
contains a mercury-containing motor vehicle light switch (PRC
� 15029).
4)Pursuant to Chapter 23 (Section 66261.50) of Division 4.5 of
Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations, defines as
hazardous waste when discarded mercury-containing motor
vehicle light switches and any motor vehicle or portion of a
motor vehicle that contains such switches, when any person
decides to crush, bale, shred, or shear the vehicle.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
Need for the bill : According to the author's office, "Over the
past several years, other companies have begun to purchase
end-of-life vehicles and appliances and to compact them into
what are known in the industry as "logs," without first having
properly de-polluted them. These logs are placed in seagoing
containers and exported overseas for shredding in China or other
foreign countries. These companies compete unfairly with the
California auto shredders for vehicles and appliances and pose a
serious threat to the environment. These "loggers" do not
adhere to the same environmental standards that the California
shredders are held to, and they enjoy a significant economic
benefit by avoiding environmental compliance costs. California
auto shredders collectively spend millions of dollars annually
to comply with California environmental regulations, and the
economics of the shredding business do not allow them to compete
for cars and appliances that are being purchased at higher
prices by companies who do not have to bear environmental
regulatory costs. It is also contrary to the policy of the
State of California to allow the export of vehicles and
appliances that have not been de-polluted, resulting in exposure
of individuals and the environment to hazardous substances when
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these items are shredded in foreign countries."
Recycling of automobiles and appliances in California :
End-of-life automobile and appliances are commonly shredded,
which involves a capital intensive mechanical process in which a
hammer mill rips and grinds materials into fist-sized pieces.
According to a November 2002 draft report by DTSC, the shredding
of automobiles and household appliances results in a mixture of
ferrous metal (e.g. iron-containing scrap), nonferrous metal
(e.g. non-iron-containing metal alloys such as aluminum and
copper), and shredder waste. These constituents are separated
by a variety of methods, generally on-site. Both the ferrous
and non-ferrous metals are sold to secondary smelters where they
are recycled and used to manufacture various metal products.
Shredder waste, also known as "fluff," consists of glass, fiber,
rubber, automobile fluids, dirt and plastics found in
automobiles and household appliances that remain after the
recyclable metals have been removed. According to DTSC's draft
report, shredder waste is both a hazardous waste and a
recyclable material subject to California's Hazardous Waste
Control Law and the regulations that apply to hazardous wastes.
In 2002, DTSC reported that approximately 700,000 automobiles
and an unknown number of appliances were recycled by shredders
in California each year, producing approximately 1.1 million
tons of recyclable scrap metal. The New York Times recently
reported that in 2010, auto shredders deposited 591,271 tons of
waste in California landfills.
Mismanagement of end-of-life vehicles and appliances : While
"materials that require special handling," including mercury
switches and other materials, are required to be removed before
shredding and recycling, DTSC reports that shredder waste has
still been found to contain hazardous materials such as lead,
cadmium, copper, zinc and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at
levels above the state's regulatory thresholds. The discussion
on how best to manage this waste is ongoing.
California shredders have recently been cited for air and water
quality violations associated with operational pollution. For
example, in January 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency ordered Sims Metal Management, a metals and electronics
recycler at the Port of Redwood City, to comply with federal
Clean Water Act laws following inspections that found evidence
of unlawful discharges of PCBs, mercury, lead, copper and zinc
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into the San Francisco Bay. According to records provided by
the Port of Redwood City, from July 2010 to June 2011, 20 large
vessels picked up and transported an average of 22,000 tons of
shredded material a piece from the facility bound for global
destinations including China. The largest single transport
during the specified period was 35,000 tons of shredded
material.
Additionally, DTSC announced in September 2011 that it and the
Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office reached a $2.9
million settlement with SA Recycling LLC, a metal recycler based
in Anaheim. The settlement agreement resolved a complaint that
SA Recycling and Sims Metal West violated hazardous waste and
air pollution laws in 2007. When a May 2007 explosion occurred
at the company's Port of Los Angeles facility, destroying its
air pollution control system, the facility, which shreds
automobiles, household appliances and other metals, continued to
operate for about 120 days without a fully functioning air
pollution control system in place. An estimated 4.4 tons of
material was released into the air as a result.
The bill's sponsors also raise concerns about "loggers," which
they say are unpermitted, ephemeral, mobile facilities that
purchase end-of-life vehicles and appliances in order to compact
them for export. They argue that these "logging" facilities do
not adhere to environmental laws, often failing to remove
required materials from vehicles and appliances before
compaction. In addition to threatening public health and the
environment, the sponsors assert, these "logging" facilities
syphon much needed materials from legitimate recycling
facilities. This bill is an attempt to ascertain compliance
with federal and state law as it relates to end-of-life vehicles
and appliances.
Proposed amendment : Since the bill currently limits the
directive in subdivision (a) to disposal, and the directive in
(b) includes other management activities, the Committee may wish
to clarify that the working group is not limited to focusing on
the disposal of end-of-life vehicles and appliances.
Prior legislation :
SB 524 (Correa, 2009), required the Secretary for Environmental
Protection to establish a working group to consider the current
regulation of auto shredder waste and potential changes to that
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regulation. SB 524 passed the Assembly ESTM Committee on a 5 -
1 vote, but was amended to instead deal with the Transportation
Investment Fund.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (sponsor)
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Shannon McKinney / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965