Washington, D.C. leaders next week will hold a hearing on legislation making various changes to the district’s extended producer responsibility program for electronics.
B24-1000 would update the electronics recycling program, as well as make changes to the battery recycling law in the district, which has about 690,000 residents. The changes were requested by the Department of Energy and the Environment, which implements the law.
For the e-scrap program, the bill would expand OEMs’ requirements for providing public outreach and awareness, change deadlines for manufacturers to submit stewardship registration applications starting next year, exempt producers that sold fewer than 100 units of covered electronic equipment in the previous year, and more.
The bill would also require battery stewardship organizations to develop strategies for collecting batteries in communities with waste management challenges related to environmental justice, provide regulators more authority to revoke registrations of organizations that fail to implement a material provision of an approved collection and recycling plan, alter various deadlines and timelines, and would set the date for when the battery disposal ban goes into effect to Aug. 1, 2023.
The bill was first introduced Sept. 19, and the Council of the District of Columbia will hold a public hearing on it at 11 a.m. Eastern on Oct. 27.
