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Position Statements

30 October 2002

Mr. Edwin F. Lowry, Director
Department of Toxics Substances Control
P.O. Box 806
Sacramento, CA 95812-0806

Dear Mr. Lowry:

The Partnership for Mercury Free Vehicles (Partnership) would like to comment on the proposed mercury waste classification and management regulations, DTSC reference number R-02-04. While we support the DTSC’s intent to ensure the safe recovery and recycling of mercury-containing automobile components, we do not believe the proposed regulations will adequately accomplish this goal, and in fact may even confound it. Instead, the Partnership encourages DTSC to support legislation that would address the underlying causes of, as well as the problems related to, mercury in vehicles.

The Partnership is a unique coalition of environmental organizations and industries involved in vehicle recycling. The partners have worked together for more than a year to develop effective, workable policy solutions. The Partnership established principles, embodied in our Action Plan, addressing mercury switch collection and recovery, Design for Recycling®, regulatory flexibility, public education, and government responsibility. The Partnership then developed model legislation that achieves these goals.

We are promoting this legislation through our coalition, our national and local affiliates, and our individual members, and we hope that California and other states will adopt it. We have already played a major role in the development and passage of Maine’s recent legislation addressing mercury in motor vehicles. We hope that the Department will join us in promoting this important, beneficial solution in California.

In the meantime, we are concerned that the regulations as proposed would preclude a workable solution for eliminating automotive-related mercury. Specifically, the regulations would impose the burden for mercury recovery upon the entities involved in the recycling process, rather than upon those who knowingly created the problem in the first place. Additionally, the regulations would regulate recyclable vehicles and those processing them under the state’s "hazardous waste" regime, creating significant new administrative burdens and unpredictable secondary impacts for recycling. To encourage the proper handling and recycling of mercury switches once they have been removed from vehicles, the Partnership does support the listing of mercury switches as Universal Waste. The proposed regulations, however, would classify entire vehicles as hazardous waste, in a manner that would not reduce mercury use or emissions but would hinder dismantlers, shredders, the products they produce, and recycling overall. Such a stigma would make it more difficult for vehicle recyclers to compete with generators of virgin raw materials or generators of non-contaminated (or clean) scrap.

Any policy solution should give manufacturers meaningful incentives to design products that do not contain hazardous materials such as mercury. The model legislation would accomplish this goal by requiring automakers to establish effective recovery programs. It requires vehicle manufacturers to establish and fund a system for the removal and safe management of mercury switches in vehicles. The legislation also prohibits the sale of new vehicles containing mercury switches. The model legislation’s mercury switch collection system would require the achievement of a capture rate of at least 90% and includes removal from vehicles in commerce as well as end-of-life vehicles.

We hope that the DTSC will work with the California legislature, the environmental community, and the auto and steel recycling industry to pass this legislation to eliminate the use of mercury in automobiles and to ensure the recovery of mercury from recycled vehicles. In the meantime, we hope that the Department will alter its approach in its proposed regulations, which we believe would not solve the mercury problem and could, additionally, be very harmful to the recycling industry and the recycling of automobiles in California. Please do not hesitate to contact any of the Partnership members for further information about our Action Plan or model legislation, both of which are enclosed, or to discuss how to achieve our mutual goals concerning mercury in vehicles. We look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,
The Partnership for Mercury-Free Vehicles:

William P. Steinkuller
Executive Vice President
Automotive Recyclers Association

Robin K. Wiener
President
Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries

Alexandra McPherson
Director
Clean Production Network

Michael T. Bender
Executive Director
Mercury Policy Project

Charles Griffith
Auto Project Director
Ecology Center

Thomas A. Danjcze
President
Steel Manufacturers Association

Kevin Mills
Director, Pollution Prevention Alliance
Environmental Defense

William M. Heenan, Jr.
President
Steel Recycling Institute

Margaret Wooster
Executive Director
Great Lakes United

The Clean Car Campaign is a project of the Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization.

email: info@cleancarcampaign.org