Major CRT Recycler In Ohio, Arizona Near Collapse, Subject Of Enforcement Action

Resource Recycling reported Thursday Closed Loop Refining and Recovery, a major recycler of CRT televisions and monitors collected by electronics waste programs, including many in Pennsylvania, is “on the brink of closing and leaving more than 90 million pounds of stockpiled CRT material in its wake.”

Closed Loop has recycling operations in Ohio and Arizona which were used by e-waste recycling programs across the country.

In addition, Resource Recycling reported the company “received a notice of violation from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency that could trigger further enforcement action, including forced closure.”

Resource Recycling further reported: “Since its founding in 2010, Closed Loop stated repeatedly that it was working on plans to build furnaces in both states that would separate out lead. But the company's technology has not materialized, leaving millions of pounds of glass sitting in company sites on both ends of the country.”

Many electronics manufacturers across the country used the Closed Loop sites for their recycling programs, according to Resource Recycling.

Pennsylvania’s electronics waste recycling program has all but collapsed over the last year leaving two-thirds of Pennsylvania counties without access to free and convenient electronics recycling.

As many as 9 million CRT TVs and monitors are left to recycle across Pennsylvania, in addition to other electronic waste, according to the PA Recycling Markets Center.

The solution suggested by several witnesses at the March 21 Joint Conservation Committee hearing on the issue was to require electronics manufacturers to pay for recycling all the electronics waste collected in local recycling programs.

Just this week DEP announced a change in policy that would allow local electronics waste collection programs to charge consumers for recycling, but the material collected could not count toward an electronics manufacturer’s obligations under Pennsylvania’s e-waste collection law-- the Covered Device Recycling Act.

These recycling fees essentially charge consumers twice for recycling, according to testimony at a March 21 Joint Conservation Committee hearing.

Consumers pay the first time when they buy a product because the cost of recycling is built into the electronic devices we buy and now a second time if consumers bring their devices to recycling events that impose a fee.

Visit Keep PA Beautiful’s new Electronics Waste website to learn more about the issue and recycling opportunities near you.

For more information on e-waste recycling, visit DEP’s Covered Device Recycling Act webpage.

NewsClip:

Resource Recycling: CRT Outlet Closed Loop Nears Collapse

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