Additional Guidance for Municipalities Implementing Maine 's Shared Responsibility System for Household Television and Computer Monitor Recycling
December 2005
Under Maine 's new E-Waste law, beginning January 18, 2006 municipalities and manufacturers share responsibility for the collection and recycling of household televisions and computer monitors. The Maine DEP has approved 5 consolidators to manage the consolidation, recycling and billing for this program (see attached list). To take advantage of the manufacturer responsibility provisions of Maine's E-Waste Law, municipalities must direct their residents' waste household TVs and computer monitors to these “ Approved Consolidators ” as manufacturers will only pay their share of consolidation and recycling costs for household TVs and computer monitors managed by these 5 consolidators.
Municipalities can participate in this shared responsibility system by directing their residents' household TVs and computer monitors to these consolidators anytime starting January 18, 2006. However, the disposal ban on household CRTs does not go into effect until July 20, 2006. This allows municipalities to begin their recycling programs any time between January 18th and July 20th .
If your municipality operates a municipal collection site for TVs and computer monitors, there are two important changes you must make in your operations to ensure these items are properly tracked and billed:
• Utilize the most recent version of the DEP Universal Waste Log form to record whether a unit is from a household or business. This newest log includes codes for TVs vs. computer monitors, and CRT vs. Flat Panel Display. Copies of this log form are available from Maine DEP (call Ed Vigneault at 207-287-7827 or 207-287-2651).
• Visibly mark each household unit with “MH” (for “Maine Household”) with permanent marker, grease pen, or paint pen. This will enable the consolidator to distinguish which units need to be weighed for billing to the manufacturers. Any units that are not visibly marked will be treated as non-household waste, and the municipality will be billed for the handling and recycling.
Manufacturers are required to pay for the consolidator handling, transportation to recycling and recycling of household TVs and computer monitors. Manufacturers are also responsible for paying all transportation, including the pick up from a municipal site if the consolidator picks up at least 16,000 pounds of covered electronic devices at a single municipal collection site. If a consolidator has to pick up from multiple collection sites to achieve the “full” 16,000 pound load, the manufacturers are only responsible for transportation costs from the location at which the full load is achieved, and the consolidator will bill the municipalities for the initial mobilization and mileage costs. Municipalities can minimize their transportation costs by self-transporting small loads of TVs and monitors (packed to prevent breakage) to larger regional facilities, or by directing their residents to deliver waste TVs and computer monitors directly to regional facilities.
Generally, you can figure that a 5' high pallet of TVs weighs approximately 625 pounds (15 units averaging 45 pounds apiece), and a 5' high pallet of computer monitors weighs 1020 pounds (34 units averaging 30 pounds apiece). A typical municipal collection site mix is one pallet of computer monitors to four pallets of TVs; to achieve 16,000 pounds a site needs to collect 23 pallets.
The Department has recently issued guidance on “Alternative Acceptable CRT Container Methods” for use by municipal e-waste collection programs. A copy of this guidance is attached.
Ann Pistell of the DEP will be offering training in managing UW/E-Waste as part of our Transfer Station Operator Training Program. A notice and registration form for this training is also attached.
For additional information on this program, please visit our ewaste web site or contact me at 207-287-7720 or 207-287-2651 or e-mail me .
