Bill Text: NY S08480 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to the public education and outreach program required to be developed by manufacturers of electronics and electronic waste collection sites.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-06-04 - REFERRED TO RULES [S08480 Detail]
Download: New_York-2019-S08480-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8480 IN SENATE June 4, 2020 ___________ Introduced by Sen. KAMINSKY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to recy- cling of electronic products The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Paragraph (d) of subdivision 1 of section 27-2605 of the 2 environmental conservation law, as added by chapter 99 of the laws of 3 2010, is amended to read as follows: 4 (d) a general description of the manner in which the manufacturer will 5 comply with section 27-2603 of this title, including specific informa- 6 tion on the manufacturer's electronic waste acceptance program in the 7 state, [and] a current list of locations within the state where consum- 8 ers may return electronic waste, and a description of the public educa- 9 tion and outreach program required by paragraph (c) of subdivision five 10 of this section; 11 § 2. Paragraphs (a) and (c) of subdivision 5 of section 27-2605 of the 12 environmental conservation law, as added by chapter 99 of the laws of 13 2010, are amended to read as follows: 14 (a) collection, handling and recycling or reuse of electronic waste 15 pursuant to section 27-2603 of this title in a manner convenient to 16 consumers. [The following acceptance methods shall be considered reason-17ably convenient: (i) mail or ship back return programs; (ii) collection18or acceptance events conducted by the manufacturer or the manufacturer's19agent or designee, including events conducted through local governments20or private parties; (iii) fixed acceptance locations such as dedicated21acceptance sites operated by the manufacturer or its agent or designee;22(iv) agreements with local governments, retail stores, sales outlets and23not-for-profit organizations which have agreed to provide facilities for24the collection of electronic waste; (v) community collection events; and25(vi) any combination of these or other acceptance methods which effec-26tively provide for the acceptance of electronic waste for recycling or27reuse through means that are available and reasonably convenient to28consumers in the state. At a minimum, the manufacturer shall ensure thatEXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD15541-04-0S. 8480 2 1all counties of the state, and all municipalities which have a popu-2lation of ten thousand or greater, have at least one method of accept-3ance that is available within such county or municipality. The depart-4ment may establish additional requirements to ensure convenient5collection from consumers] To meet minimum collection requirements, a 6 manufacturer or the manufacturer's agent or designee shall use geograph- 7 ic modeling to determine the number and distribution of permanent sites 8 to be operated by the manufacturer or its agent or designee for 9 collection of covered electronic equipment based on the following crite- 10 ria: (i) at least ninety percent of New York residents shall have a 11 collection site within a fifteen mile radius of their principal resi- 12 dence; and (ii) one additional permanent collection site will be estab- 13 lished for every fifty thousand residents of an urbanized area (as 14 defined by the United States Census Bureau). 15 In addition, a manufacturer or its agent or its designee, shall ensure 16 that: (i) in counties with populations between sixty-five thousand and 17 three hundred thousand people, there shall be no less than three perma- 18 nent collection locations for collection of covered electronic equip- 19 ment; and (ii) in counties with less than sixty-five thousand people, 20 there shall be, at a minimum, three community collection or acceptance 21 events conducted on an annual basis by the manufacturer or the manufac- 22 turer's agent or designee, or on behalf of the manufacturer or its agent 23 or designee by a local government or private party. The schedule for 24 such collection events shall be made available to the public and 25 provided to the department on or before the first day of January of each 26 year. 27 Permanent collection locations may be operated by the manufacturer or 28 its agent or designee, or by local governments, retail stores, sales 29 outlets, and not-for-profit organizations which have agreed with the 30 manufacturer or its agent or designee to provide facilities for the 31 collection of electronic waste. 32 Nothing in this section shall prohibit a county or solid waste author- 33 ity, at its discretion, to establish a permanent collection site for 34 electronic waste to meet the convenience standard, and the manufacturer, 35 or its agent or designee, shall accept all covered electronic equipment 36 so collected at no cost to the municipality, and shall reimburse to the 37 municipality the reasonable costs of preparing the collected equipment 38 for shipment. 39 A manufacturer may participate with other manufacturers in a collec- 40 tive electronic waste acceptance program to achieve the convenience 41 standard established herein; 42 (c) a public education and outreach program, developed in collab- 43 oration with the manufacturer and the operator of each electronic waste 44 collection site where the manufacturer's covered electronic equipment is 45 collected, to inform consumers about the manufacturer's electronic waste 46 acceptance program, including at a minimum one or more of the following: 47 (i) an internet website and a toll-free telephone number provided by the 48 manufacturer and written information included in the product manual for, 49 or at the time of sale of, covered electronic equipment that provides 50 sufficient information to allow a consumer of covered electronic equip- 51 ment to learn how to return the covered equipment for recycling or 52 reuse, and in the case of manufacturers of computers, hard drives and 53 other covered electronic equipment that have internal memory on which 54 personal or other confidential data can be stored, such website shall 55 provide instructions for how consumers can destroy such data before 56 surrendering the products for recycling or reuse; (ii) advertisementsS. 8480 3 1 and press releases [if any]; and (iii) post-purchase electronic notifi- 2 cation from the manufacturer to consumers; and 3 § 3. Subdivision 8 of section 27-2605 of the environmental conserva- 4 tion law, as added by chapter 99 of the laws of 2010, is amended to read 5 as follows: 6 8. A manufacturer shall be responsible for all costs associated with 7 the implementation of the electronic waste acceptance program, including 8 but not limited to all costs of collection, transportation and recycling 9 of covered electronic equipment. A manufacturer shall continue to cover 10 the full costs of collection, transportation and recycling of covered 11 electronic equipment, and its collection responsibilities under subdivi- 12 sion one of this section shall continue, regardless of whether the 13 acceptance standard in subdivision four of section 27-2603 of this arti- 14 cle is achieved for the year. The manufacturer or its agent shall not 15 charge consumers, municipalities or electronic waste collection sites 16 for the collection, handling and recycling and reuse of electronic 17 waste, provided that such prohibition shall not apply to a charge on 18 business consumers or to charges for premium services. This prohibition 19 shall not apply to a manufacturer's contract with a consumer for the 20 collection, handling, recycling or reuse of electronic waste that was 21 entered into prior to the effective date of this section. For purposes 22 of this subdivision, "business consumer" means a for-profit entity which 23 has fifty or more full time employees or a not-for-profit corporation 24 with seventy-five or more full time employees, but not a not-for-profit 25 corporation designated under section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue 26 code. For purposes of this subdivision, "premium services" means equip- 27 ment and data security services, refurbishment for reuse by the consum- 28 er, and other custom services as may be determined by the department. 29 § 4. Section 27-2603 of the environmental conservation law is amended 30 by adding a new subdivision 8 to read as follows: 31 8. A person operating an electronic waste collection site, an elec- 32 tronic waste consolidation facility or an electronic waste recycling 33 facility and having a reasonable ground to believe that a manufacturer 34 has failed or is failing to cover all costs of collection, transporta- 35 tion or recycling of covered electronic equipment, may request the 36 department to investigate such alleged failure and, upon a finding by 37 the department that the manufacturer has failed or is failing to cover 38 such costs, the department shall order the manufacturer to pay such 39 costs. 40 § 5. Paragraphs (f) and (h) of subdivision 1 of section 27-2617 of the 41 environmental conservation law, as added by chapter 99 of the laws of 42 2010, are amended to read as follows: 43 (f) the names and locations of electronic waste recycling facilities 44 utilized by the manufacturer and entities to which electronic waste is 45 sent for reuse, whether such facilities or entities are located in the 46 state or outside the state, including details on the methods of recycl- 47 ing or reuse of electronic waste, any disassembly or physical recovery 48 operation used, and the environmental management measures implemented by 49 [such] each recycling facility or entity identified by the manufacturer 50 under this paragraph; 51 (h) a [brief] description of [its] the public education and outreach 52 program required by paragraph (c) of subdivision five of section 27-2605 53 of this title, including the number of visits to the internet website 54 and calls to the toll-free telephone number provided by the manufacturer 55 [as required by section 27-2605 of this title], copies of writtenS. 8480 4 1 notices, and number of post-purchase electronic notifications sent to 2 consumers; 3 § 6. This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after 4 it shall have become a law.
