(a) (1) The department shall prepare and adopt, by regulation, a list, and on or before January 1, 2002, and when appropriate thereafter, shall revise, by regulation, that list, of specified hazardous wastes that the department finds are economically and technologically feasible to recycle either onsite or at an offsite commercial hazardous waste recycling facility in the state, taking into consideration various factors that shall include, but are not limited to, the quantities of, concentrations of, and potential contaminants in, these hazardous wastes, the number and location of recycling facilities, and the proximity of these facilities to hazardous waste generators.
(2) Whenever any hazardous waste on the list adopted or revised pursuant to paragraph (1) is transported offsite for disposal, the department may request, in writing, by certified mail with return receipt requested, and the generator of that waste shall supply the department with a formal, complete, and detailed statement justifying why the waste was not recycled, in writing, by certified mail with return receipt requested, within 30 calendar days of receipt of the department’s request. This statement shall include the generator’s assessment of the economic and technological feasibility of recycling the wastes and may include, but is not required to be limited to, the generator’s good faith determination that sending the hazardous waste to any recycling facility where it is feasible to recycle that hazardous waste would constitute an unacceptable environmental or business risk. This determination by the generator shall be based upon an environmental audit or other reasonably diligent investigation of the environmental and other relevant business practices of the recycling facility or facilities where it would otherwise be feasible to recycle the waste. If the request is made of any entity listed in Section 25118 other than an individual, the statement shall be issued by the responsible management of that entity. The department shall keep confidential any trade secrets contained in that statement.
(3) On or before January 1, 2002, the department shall establish a procedure for the department to independently verify whether any hazardous waste identified in the list adopted pursuant to paragraph (1) is disposed of, rather than recycled. The department shall, on or before January 1, 2002, prepare and adopt those regulations that the department finds necessary to ensure that it can fully perform its duties pursuant to subdivisions (k) and ( l) of Section 25170 to encourage the exchange of hazardous waste and to establish and maintain an information clearinghouse of hazardous wastes that may be recyclable.
(4) On or before July 1, 2000, the department shall establish an advisory committee to advise the department on the development of the regulations required or authorized by this section and on the department’s implementation of this section. The advisory committee shall consist of representatives of generators, hazardous waste facility operators, environmental organizations, the Legislature, and other interested parties.
(5) In determining to which generators the department will send the request specified in paragraph (2), the department shall give priority to notifying generators transporting offsite for disposal more than 1000 pounds per year of the type of hazardous waste that would be the subject of the request, to the extent this prioritization is feasible within the information management capabilities of the department.
(b) (1) If, after the department receives a statement from a generator pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a), the department finds the recycling of a hazardous waste to be economically and technologically feasible, the department shall inform the generator, in writing, by certified mail, return receipt requested, that 30 days after the date the generator receives notice of the department’s finding, any of the generators’ hazardous waste transported offsite to which the department’s finding applies shall, after that date, be recycled. The department may establish procedures for rescinding or modifying any finding made by the department pursuant to this paragraph if there is a pertinent change in circumstances related to that finding.
(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the department shall not find the recycling of a hazardous waste to be economically and technologically feasible if a generator includes a good faith determination in the statement submitted pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) that sending its hazardous waste to any recycling facility where it is otherwise feasible to recycle the hazardous waste constitutes an unacceptable environmental or business risk.
(c) A generator who does not recycle a hazardous waste after the generator receives a notice of the departments’ findings pursuant to subdivision (b) that the hazardous waste is economically and technologically feasible to recycle is subject to five times the disposal fee that would otherwise apply to the disposal of that hazardous waste pursuant to Section 25174.1.
(d) For purposes of this section, “recycle” and “recycling” shall have the same meaning as set forth in subdivision (a) of Section 25121.1.
(Amended by Stats. 1999, Ch. 745, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2000.)