Bill Text: CA AB2176 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Hazardous waste: lighting products.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-05-28 - In committee: Set, second hearing. Held under submission. [AB2176 Detail]

Download: California-2009-AB2176-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 2176	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Blumenfield

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2010

   An act to add Article 10.03 (commencing with Section 25210.13) to
Chapter 6.5 of Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, relating to
hazardous waste.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2176, as introduced, Blumenfield. Hazardous waste: lighting
products.
    Existing law, the California Lighting Efficiency and Toxics
Reduction Act, administered by the Department of Toxic Substances
Control, prohibits a person from manufacturing for sale or selling in
the state specified general purpose lights that contain levels of
hazardous substances prohibited by the European Union pursuant to the
RoHS Directive.
   This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to enact
subsequent legislation to provide for the California Lighting Toxics
Reduction and Recycling Act.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
    (a) The state's policy, including the California Lighting
Efficiency and Toxics Reduction Act, which added Article 10.02
(commencing with Section 25210.9) to Chapter 6.5 of Division 20 of
the Health and Safety Code, has put the state on a path of
transitioning toward more energy-efficient lighting, including
substantially increased utilization of fluorescent lighting.
    (b) Lighting products introduce hazardous waste into the
environment as it may contain such hazardous substances as mercury,
in the lighting product itself, and by the release of hazardous
substances from the production of energy, which the lighting product
utilizes.
    (c) High-efficiency bulbs, such as compact fluorescent lamps,
contain mercury within the product, but because these bulbs use less
energy, they are responsible for smaller hazardous emissions from
energy production.
   (d) Low-efficiency bulbs, such as incandescent bulbs, contain no
mercury in the product but are responsible for greater hazardous
substance emissions from energy production.
    (e) The state prohibits the disposal of lighting products
containing hazardous levels of metal in the solid waste stream.
    (f) The hazardous waste generated by waste lighting products can
be reduced and managed through recycling, but recycling opportunities
are currently inconvenient or nonexistent for most consumers.
   (g) Even though some types of fluorescent lighting products
deliver the same level of light at the same level of efficiency as
other types of these products, they may have varying levels of
mercury. The Department of General Services has adopted a procurement
preference favoring low-mercury fluorescent lamps.
    (h) In 2007, the Legislature enacted the California Lighting
Efficiency and Toxics Reduction Act, which directed the Department of
Toxic Substances Control to convene a lighting task force to
consider and make policy recommendations to the Legislature for
designing a statewide collection program for end-of-life fluorescent
lights.
    (i) On September 1, 2008, the task force submitted
recommendations to the Legislature on the need and options for a
convenient statewide system for the collection and recycling of
fluorescent lamps for residential generators.
    (j) Electricity generation, particularly from coal, releases
mercury into the atmosphere, which then contaminates waterways and
fish, causing a public health risk.
    (k) The more electricity required by a bulb, the greater the
level of hazardous waste, including mercury, from electricity
generation associated with its use.
    (l) The purpose of this act is to establish a system for the
recycling of fluorescent lamps generated by households and small
businesses that is free and convenient for end users and to promote
the rapid development and uptake of more efficient and low-toxicity
lighting products to minimize the public health impacts from
lighting.
    (m) The responsibility for the end-of-life management of products
and materials rests primarily with the producers who designed and
profited from the product, so incorporating life-cycle costs into the
total product costs will reduce the impact of these products on the
taxpayers and ratepayers of the state and reduce the impact of these
products on human health and the environment.
  SEC. 2.  Article 10.03 (commencing with Section 25210.13) is added
to Chapter 6.5 of Division 20 of the Health and Safety Code, to read:


      Article 10.03.  California Lighting Toxics Reduction and
Recycling Act


   25210.13.  The Legislature declares its intent to enact subsequent
legislation to provide for the California Lighting Toxics Reduction
and Recycling Act.