Dive Brief:
- Repercussions of Closed Loop Refining and Recovery’s closure continue as Arizona regulators work out what to do with an estimated 45 million pounds of leaded CRT glass stockpiled by the company at multiple sites in the Phoenix area. The company has told Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) it is not able to pay for the cleanup, as reported by E-Scrap News.
- ADEQ doesn't have an estimate for the cleanup cost, but says it "has not paid for any disposition" yet. About 1 million pounds have been dealt with this year and conversations are ongoing with landlords of the various properties.
- Because 120 million pounds of the material came from California's state program between April 2010 and April 2016 ADEQ has also been in contact with regulators there as well. California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has maintained that responsibility for the material belongs to the recycler.
Dive Insight:
Closed Loop's claims to have a furnace technology that could process leaded CRT glass were seen as promising when the company launched back in 2010. Yet those plans never came to fruition and the company closed amid a multitude of legal and financial issues. They also left behind an estimated 200 million pounds of material in Ohio as well which continue to be an issue.
CRT management has been recognized as a "systematic problem" by the Environmental Protection Agency and the issue of stockpiling is a key factor in that characterization. In another example, Creative Recycling Systems also left behind 30 million pounds of CRT glass at locations throughout South Carolina. One property owner has sued 11 solid waste agencies that sent the material for damages and other fees in a case that is expected to go to trial next year.
Dealing with this material remains problematic as CRT units have lost much of their value for recyclers and are being collected in such small quantities in certain areas that some businesses no longer find it viable to process them.
