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Enactment date: 12/1/2005
Int. No. 70-A
By Council Members Koppell, Yassky, Liu, Nelson, Vann, Dilan, Fidler, Gerson, Jackson, Lopez, Quinn, Sanders, Seabrook, Stewart, Weprin, Brewer, Clarke, James. Gennaro, McMahon, Avella, Vallone Jr. and The Public Advocate (Ms. Gotbaum)
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to requiring a recycling program for all rechargeable batteries.
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Declaration of legislative Intent and findings. The Council finds and declares that the presence of toxic metals in discarded rechargeable batteries is a matter of great concern in light of their adverse effect on groundwater quality when disposed of in landfills and their presence in emissions or residual ash when incinerated at a resource recovery facility; that cadmium, lead and mercury found in rechargeable batteries, on the basis of available scientific and medical evidence, are of particular concern; that it is desirable to reduce the toxicity of waste materials in the solid waste streams directed to resource recovery and sanitary landfill facilities; that the removal of used rechargeable batteries containing high levels of cadmium, lead or mercury from the solid waste stream can have a significant beneficial impact on the quality of the emissions and residual ash resulting from the incineration of solid waste at resource recovery facilities, and on groundwater quality in those regions where solid waste is disposed at sanitary landfill facilities; and that the most effective and appropriate method to promote the reduction of toxic metals from rechargeable battery disposal is to require the battery industry to accept the financial responsibility for the environmentally sound collection, transportation and recycling or proper disposal of discarded rechargeable batteries.
The Council therefore determines that it is in the public interest of the city of New York to maximize the removal of used rechargeable batteries from the solid waste stream by banning the disposal of used rechargeable batteries from the solid waste stream and requiring manufacturers of rechargeable batteries to take back and recycle the used rechargeable batteries that are sold or disposed of in the city of New York.
This law is purposefully structured to fit into current rechargeable battery initiatives, especially the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation's call2recycle program. This program currently uses volunteer retailers, and provides them with collection boxes with pre-paid postage that can be mailed directly to existing recycling centers, to collect and recycle rechargeable batteries and cell phones of all varieties. The program also does public outreach and advertising to increase its recycling rates. The program is paid for by over 350 manufacturers and marketers of products that use rechargeable batteries and has over 37,000 participating retail partners, including approximately 350 retailers throughout the city, such as Radio Shack, Home Depot and Verizon Wireless. The Council finds that making this existing voluntary program mandatory would strengthen its effectiveness in the city of New York.
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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]
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§ 3. This local law shall take effect one year after its enactment into law, except that section 16-406 of the administrative code of the city of New York, as added by section two of this title, shall not take effect until eighteen months after its enactment into law.