Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Hazardous Product Stewardship topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee reviews revisions to household hazardous-product stewardship plan and rollout timeline
Summary
Committee counsel described adjustments to an extended producer responsibility-style stewardship program for household hazardous products, including a phased rollout, an initial three-year plan with reduced convenience standards and later full plan requirements, and provisions for registration fees and municipal collections.
Michael Grady, federal counsel (presenting to the committee), walked through draft changes to a household-hazardous-product product stewardship bill intended to set up a stewardship organization and a phased implementation schedule.
Grady described the planned initial three-year "initial plan" with reduced convenience standards to allow the stewardship organization time to stand up operations and recruit manufacturer participation before full plan requirements take effect. The bill drafts discussed the timing of registration and reporting: a registration deadline in mid-2025 and a fuller set of required manufacturer and brand disclosures on renewal in July 2026.
On the collection and financing side, Grady said the plan must still provide free municipal collection opportunities during the initial period, and that later statewide convenience standards and formal municipal-inclusion rules would apply once the full plan is active. The plan must disclose disposition methods that follow the waste-management hierarchy (source reduction, reuse, recycling, energy recovery, disposal) and document how recycling will be pursued where technically and economically feasible.
Committee members and staff hashed through technical edits during the briefing: participation-rate targets (a recommended annual participation percent was discussed and the committee indicated 7% was acceptable), fee-authority language to allow the stewardship organization to charge reasonable administrative fees, and a question about the secretary’s authority to collect a prorated oversight charge (including a supplemental 10% allocation for waste-reduction assessments that committee counsel flagged for clarity).
The draft also contained a landfill-disposal surcharge adjustment and a provision allowing the secretary to grant variances where municipalities partner to provide permanent collection access. Several committee members signaled that fee and program details will need additional drafting and that the department and stakeholders are continuing discussions on the fee structure.
No formal vote on the stewardship language occurred during the session; committee staff and sponsors said they anticipated additional drafting and a future markup session.
