An Act To Implement Recommendations of the Department of Environmental Protection Regarding the State's Mercury-added Lamp Law
Sec. 1. 38 MRSA §1672, sub-§1, ¶A-1 is enacted to read:
(1) Any number of compact fluorescent mercury-added lamps; or
(2) Ten or fewer mercury-added lamps that are not compact fluorescent mercury-added lamps.
Sec. 2. 38 MRSA §1672, sub-§1, ¶C, as enacted by PL 2009, c. 272, §1, is amended to read:
Sec. 3. 38 MRSA §1672, sub-§1, ¶¶E and F are enacted to read:
Sec. 4. 38 MRSA §1672, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2013, c. 315, §2, is further amended to read:
(1) Convenient collection locations located adequate to serve the needs of covered entities in rural and urban areas throughout the State where residents a covered entity can drop off their household mercury-added lamps without cost, including but not limited to municipal collection sites locations and participating retail establishments ; . The program must include a method of determining the adequate number and geographic distribution of collection locations based on geographic information system modeling.
No later than January 1, 2020, the collection system implemented under the program must provide at least 90% of the residents of the State with a permanent collection location or a nonpermanent collection location available on a periodic basis within 15 miles of their residence unless the commissioner determines that this requirement is not practicable due to geographic constraints, in which case the commissioner may approve an alternative collection system that includes a geographic distribution of collection locations but that does not otherwise meet this requirement.
Unless otherwise approved by the commissioner, the collection system implemented under the program:
(a) Must provide at least 2 collection locations within a population center of at least 30,000 residents and an additional collection location for each additional 30,000 residents within the population center; and
(b) Must ensure that the collection locations required under division (a) are located in a manner that provides residents of the population center with convenient and reasonably equitable access to the collection locations;
(2) Handling and recycling equipment and practices in compliance with the universal waste rules adopted pursuant to section 1319-O, subsection 1, paragraph F, with subsection 6 if a crushing device is used and with all other applicable requirements;
(3) Effective Provision of education and outreach efforts by a manufacturer to promote the program, which must include, but are not limited to, strategies for education of and outreach to covered entities in all areas of the State and ensuring understanding of collection options by covered entities. The education and outreach , including, but not limited to must, at a minimum, include posters, window clings and point-of-purchase signs and other materials provided that are made available to retail establishments collection locations without cost , that can be prominently displayed and that will be easily visible to covered entities; and outreach to the general public, including annual Internet-based media campaigns and print and radio media campaigns conducted in rural and urban areas in the State; and
(4) An annual report to the department on the number of mercury-added lamps recycled under the manufacturer's program, the estimated percentage of mercury-added lamps available for recycling that were recycled under the program and the methodology for estimating the number of mercury-added lamps available for recycling, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the recycling program, recommendations for increasing the number of lamps recycled under the recycling program and an accounting of the costs associated with administering and implementing the recycling program.
(5) A goal of annually increasing the percentage of the residents of the State that are aware of the requirement to recycle mercury-added lamps and the availability of mercury-added lamp recycling at collection locations implemented under the program;
(6) Provisions for routinely evaluating the effectiveness of the education and outreach under subparagraph (3);
(7) Procedures for improving the education and outreach under subparagraph (3) if the goal under subparagraph (5) is not achieved; and
(8) An annual report to the department, which must include, at a minimum:
(a) The number of mercury-added lamps recycled under the program;
(b) The estimated percentage of mercury-added lamps available for recycling that were recycled under the program and, if the percentage of lamps recycled in the prior calendar year did not represent an increase from the percentage of lamps recycled in the calendar year prior to the prior calendar year, recommendations for program modifications to increase the percentage of lamps recycled under the program;
(c) The methodology for estimating the number of mercury-added lamps available for recycling, which must include an assumption of the average lifespan of a lamp by type of lamp and number of lamps sold by type in the years on which the percentage under division (b) is calculated. Proprietary information submitted to the department pursuant to this division that is identified by the manufacturer as proprietary information is confidential and must be handled by the department in the same manner as confidential information is handled under section 1310-B;
(d) A description of the education and outreach under subparagraph (3) and an evaluation of the effectiveness of that education and outreach, including a description of the methods used to measure consumer awareness of the requirement to recycle mercury-added lamps and, beginning with the annual report for 2020, the results of an assessment of consumer awareness of the program as completed by an independent 3rd-party assessor;
(e) The location of and contact information for each collection location established under the program and an assessment of the convenience of the collection system established under the program;
(f) An accounting of the costs associated with implementing and administering the program; and
(g) Any recommendations for changes to the program to improve the convenience of the collection system, consumer education or program evaluation.
(1) In developing the program reduction and termination process under this paragraph, the department shall invite the participation of manufacturers that have implemented a recycling program under this section.
(2) The program reduction and termination process developed under this paragraph must be based on the best available data regarding the collection of mercury-added lamps in the State, including, but not limited to:
(a) The collection activity at each collection location;
(b) The estimated number of mercury-added lamps in the State still available for collection; and
(c) The total number of mercury-added lamps collected in the prior program years.
(3) Following completion of the development of the program reduction and termination process under this paragraph, the department shall submit a report to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over environment and natural resources matters regarding its findings and recommendations for implementing that process, including any proposed legislation. The report under this subparagraph may be included in the report required under section 1772, subsection 1. After reviewing the report the committee may report out a bill to implement the recommendations contained in the report or to otherwise facilitate a reduction and termination of the manufacturer recycling program required under this subsection.