It’s been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That may be true, but as we witness a flawed bill making its way through the California legislature, it may also be paved with new, burdensome metal recycling regulations that as written will cost jobs, force businesses to close and leave fewer recycling options for consumers.
SB 811 by Senator Anna Caballero is well intentioned to protect our environment when recycling scrap metal and automobiles, but it misses the mark on holding the largest corporations accountable for their negligence.
However, an unintended consequence of this well-intended proposal is the severe, adverse impact it will have on small, family-owned recycling businesses that, in contrast to the large facilities, do not expose the environment to such chemicals or waste during their operations.
Metal recyclers of all sizes – from “mom and pop” establishments to larger, full-scale “mega shredders” -- have been an important cornerstone acrosSs the nation. We both provide a safe and effective place for businesses and families to dispose of and recycle their metal products in their own backyard. We both create jobs, contribute to the local economy and support our community schools and teams.
But that’s where the similarity stops.
Smaller recyclers such as ours do not operate like the ‘big guys” using mega shredders. Larger scale operations recycle entire vehicles – automobile fleets, buses, trucks and more – directly into their machines. For a long while, the state granted these facilities an exemption from California’s hazardous waste laws, allowing them to chemically treat the residue – indeed, a hazardous waste – and deliver it to ordinary municipal landfills as though it were household trash.
Proponents of SB 811 are right to recognize that this discretionary arrangement allowed the large facilities to operate outside of the waste permitting system, thus producing contamination problems and enforcement settlements. But, regrettably, the bill as is would unintentionally do irreparable harm to smaller recycling facilities that simply do not expose the environment to hazardous waste in our processes. They use chemicals treatment of metal residue, a known hazardous waste in lieu of following Hazardous Waste Control Laws for disposal of their toxic waste, we don’t. We follow all existing regulations for the disposal of hazardous waste at hazardous waste landfills ensuring safety in the environment and human health.
The problem is that the bill brings the small facilities – again, all of whom do not expose the environment to hazardous conditions – under the same rules and regulations as the larger players, even though the gaps it targets never existed for us. SB 811 does not fill a regulatory hole for the small facilities – it duplicates the process and layers already struggling small businesses like ours with more unnecessary, unreasonable rules and expectations. Small recyclers already comply with litany of regulators including state toxics officials, local hazardous materials agencies, regional air districts, water boards overseeing stormwater permits, and local fire and land-use authorities. Under this legislation, we will now also be required to obtain two separate permits from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, paying for two sets of fees for recycling processes and outcomes that we simply do not practice. Small facilities will effectively pay twice for the same protection, amounting to millions of dollars per facility over time in duplicative fees, permitting and compliance costs.
In short, SB 811 codifies a historically relaxed standard that allows chemical treatment of hazardous waste and codifies settlement terms from lawsuits after major environmental disasters, while small shredders like ours fully adhere to California's hazardous waste control laws. The bill would hold our folks to terms with activities we do not perform and environmental disasters that did not happen at our facilities.
Facilities like ours won’t likely survive. Many that shut their doors will send their customers to the remaining larger facilities, thus placing more trucks and cars on the highways, emitting more pollution and a metal recycling market will be consolidated into the hands of a few multinational corporations. SB 811 essentially will create a monopoly of larger corporate bigwigs versus the family-owned companies that make America great.
The way to fix this and still strike the right balance between cleaner recycling and a thriving small business environment is to amend SB 811 to focus where the problem really exists: chemical treatment of auto shredder residue, which is performed only by larger scale facilities. This will preserve the intent of Caballero’s bill, modernize standards and create real accountability for the operations that prompted this legislation – while allowing small recyclers like ours to keep our lights on, people employed and communities served.
There is a window of opportunity and pathway to protect both our small metal shredders and the environment at the same time. SB 811 must make good, durable policy sense for all stakeholders in the ecosystem. By narrowing the bill to focus on the responsible entities, larger recycling facilities, to address the prevailing concerns, it helps ensure we can best serve our citizens, job creators and communities in the safest, smartest and most equitable way of all.
—Steve Slater, Regulatory Compliance Manager, Universal Service Recycling, Inc., Modesto
