CRT glass may be heading to California landfills — legally.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has issued an emergency regulation that will allow recycling firms in the state to send some of their CRT glass material to approved landfills. Provided they are unable to find a recycling option for their material, processors can now send funnel glass to hazardous waste landfills and send panel glass to solid waste landfills, so long as testing shows there is minimal risk of lead leaching into the environment.
Undertaken specifically to deal with the collapse in demand for CRT glass and growing volume of stockpiled material, DTSC said the action was needed to avert a greater environmental hazard.
“[CRT glass] demand has shrunk to almost zero, leaving recyclers with few options and increasing the likelihood of mismanagement and subsequent release of hazardous materials,” said DTSC Toxics in Products Program head Karl Palmer. “This regulation will encourage the development of new recycling technologies and where recycling is not feasible, it will put in place a process and requirements that will allow safe disposal of CRT glass.”
The new emergency regulations are set to expire after two years. Processors that have stockpiled CRT glass for six months or longer at that time will be granted an additional six months to send the glass to an approved location.
More information on the regulations is available here.