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Current Status Bill Number:View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.1031 Type of Legislation:Joint Resolution JR Introducing Body:Senate Introduced Date:20020220 Primary Sponsor:Leventis All Sponsors:Leventis and Hutto Drafted Document Number:l:\council\bills\pt\1767dw02.doc Residing Body:Senate Current Committee:Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee 01 SANR Subject:Electronic Equipment Recycling Program established History Body Date Action Description Com Leg Involved ______ ________ ______________________________________ _______ ____________ Senate 20020220 Introduced, read first time, 01 SANR referred to Committee Versions of This Bill
TO ESTABLISH THE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT RECYCLING PROGRAM TO BE ADMINISTERED BY THE RECYCLING MARKET DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COUNCIL WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE; TO IMPOSE A FIVE DOLLAR FEE ON EACH PIECE OF ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT CONTAINING A CATHODE RAY TUBE SOLD; TO REQUIRE THE STATE TREASURER TO DEPOSIT THE FEES COLLECTED IN THE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT RECYCLING FUND TO BE USED, AMONG OTHER THINGS, TO DETERMINE THE MOST EFFICIENT MEANS OF COLLECTING, TRANSPORTING, AND PROCESSING SCRAP ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT AND TO AWARD GRANTS, CONTRACTS, AND LOANS TO FURTHER THE PROCESS AND TECHNOLOGY FOR RECYCLING THIS EQUIPMENT; TO ESTABLISH THE ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT RECYCLING COMMITTEE TO REVIEW AND EVALUATE THE USE OF THE RECYCLING FUND; AND TO REQUIRE THE RECYCLING MARKET DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COUNCIL TO EVALUATE THE PROGRAM AND RECOMMEND WHETHER THIS PROGRAM SHOULD CONTINUE AND BE MADE PERMANENT LAW.
Whereas, electronic products are part of our daily lives, both in the home and business. Of the fourteen million personal computers and seventeen million televisions retired this year, eighty-five percent will be stored in attics and warehouses. It is predicted that fifty-five million whole personal computers will be landfilled by the year 2005 in addition to a portion of the one hundred forty-three million processed scrap computers. This will equate to one hundred seventy million cubic feet of computers that, if piled on one acre, would reach four thousand feet in height; and
Whereas, electronic equipment can contain a variety of toxic materials. One of these being lead and in older equipment, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury. Funnel glass within a cathode ray tube (CRT) found in computer screens and televisions are at least twenty percent lead oxide by weight. A television may contain one to six pounds of lead. Electronic equipment also contributes significant levels of cadmium, arsenic, zinc, mercury, and selenium to landfill leachate. The equipment contains precious metals, copper, steel, aluminum, and plastic which should be recycled; and
Whereas, it is vital that the State implement a program for the management and disposal of used electronic equipment, with an emphasis on recycling, in order to protect the health and welfare of its citizens. Now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. (A) There is established the Electronic Equipment Recycling Program. This program must be administered by the Recycling Market Development Advisory Council (RMDAC) within the Department of Commerce. The council shall develop and implement the state program to encourage the efficient means of collecting, storing, transporting, processing, and recycling of electronic equipment. This program must be funded by fees provided for pursuant to subsection (B).
(B) There is imposed a fee of five dollars for each piece of electronic equipment containing a cathode ray tube sold to the ultimate consumer. The retailer shall submit the fee to the Department of Revenue on a monthly basis. The Department of Revenue shall administer, collect, and enforce the electronic equipment disposal fee in the same manner that the sales and use taxes are collected pursuant to Chapter 36 of Title 12 of the 1976 Code. In lieu of the discount allowed pursuant to Section 12-36-2610 of the 1976 Code, the taxpayer may retain two percent of the total fees collected as an administrative collection allowance. This allowance applies whether or not the return is timely filed. The department shall deposit all fees collected to the credit of the State Treasurer. The State Treasurer shall establish an account, separate and distinct from the state general fund, for the Electronic Equipment Recycling Fund to be administered by the Department of Health and Environmental Control, Office of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling.
(C) The Electronic Equipment Recycling Fund must be used to:
(1) work with state and local government and businesses to implement the most efficient means of collecting, transporting, and processing scrap electronic equipment;
(2) develop public education programs on the benefits of electronic equipment recycling and how to accomplish it;
(3) award grants to local governments to pay the cost of collecting and transporting scrap electronics and contractor costs associated with processing and recycling electronic equipment;
(4) award contracts to businesses and universities for research and development of new or innovative electronics design and recycling technology;
(5) provide loans to electronic equipment recycling businesses; and
(6) carry out activities of the Office of Solid Waste Reduction and Recycling to implement provisions of this section.
(D)(1) Electronic equipment recycling grants must be awarded on the basis of written grant request proposals submitted to and approved by the Electronic Equipment Recycling Committee, established pursuant to subsection (E). Loan applications, if initially approved by this committee, must be reviewed by Business Carolina, Inc. for further evaluation and performance of due diligence. Loans under this program must be administered by Business Carolina, Inc.
(2) Grant and loan requests must be reviewed for the impact of creating sustained processes for recovering and recycling scrap electronics, minimizing and eliminating substantial volumes of this material as waste, and encouraging economic development.
(E) There is established the Electronic Equipment Recycling Committee to evaluate and review the uses of the Electronic Equipment Recycling Fund. The committee shall establish funding criteria for the program. This committee must be appointed by the RMDAC and shall consist of representatives from the RMDAC, the Solid Waste Advisory Council, a South Carolina financial institution, the electronics manufacturing industry, the Department of Health and Environmental Control, a representative of the environmental community, a member of the general public, and an electronic equipment retailer. The chairman of the committee must be appointed by the Recycling Market Development Council.
(F) The RMDAC shall report on the work and progress of the Electronic Equipment Recycling Program in its annual report to the Governor and General Assembly.
SECTION 2. (A) The Electronics Equipment Recycling Program must be evaluated to determine its effectiveness in creating satisfactory markets, a sufficient recovery infrastructure, and an adequate funding mechanism to support electronics recycling in South Carolina. Program success in these areas must be evaluated by the Recycling Market Development Advisory Council. The advisory council shall recommend whether this program should continue and be made permanent law.
(B) The Electronics Equipment Recycling Program is abolished five years from the effective date of this joint resolution, unless otherwise continued by law.
SECTION 3. This joint resolution takes effect July 1, 2002.
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