An Act To Implement Recommendations of the Department of Environmental Protection Regarding the State's Mercury-added Lamp Law
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 1668
Committee: Environment and Natural Resources
Amends: 38 MRSA §1672

Legislative Document
No. 1668
H.P. 1194
House of Representatives, April 30, 2019
An Act To Implement Recommendations of the Department of 
Environmental Protection Regarding the State's Mercury-added 
Lamp Law
Reported by Representative TUCKER of Brunswick for the Joint Standing Committee on 
Environment and Natural Resources pursuant to Joint Order 2019, H.P. 883.
Reference to the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources suggested and ordered 
printed pursuant to Joint Rule 218.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  38 MRSA §1672, sub-§1, ¶A-1 is enacted to read:
A-1.  "Covered entity" means:
(1)  A household that is located in the State;
(2)  An elementary school or a secondary school that is located in the State;
(3)  A business that is located in the State and employs 100 or fewer individuals; 
or
(4)  A nonprofit organization that is located in the State, is exempt from taxation 
under the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Section 501(c)(3) and 
employs 100 or fewer individuals.
Sec. 2.  38 MRSA §1672, sub-§1, ¶C, as enacted by PL 2009, c. 272, §1, is 
amended to read:
C.  "Municipal collection site" means a solid waste disposal facility, transfer station, 
storage facility or recycling facility at which mercury-added lamps from households 
covered entities are collected for recycling that is municipally owned or operated or 
operated by a regional association.
Sec. 3.  38 MRSA §1672, sub-§1, ¶¶E and F are enacted to read:
E.  "Population center" means an urbanized area or urban cluster, as defined by the 
United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census to identify areas of 
high population density and urban land use with a population of 2,500 or greater.
F.  "Proprietary information" means information that is a trade secret or production, 
commercial or financial information the disclosure of which would impair the 
competitive position of the submittor and which is not otherwise publicly available.
Sec. 4.  38 MRSA §1672, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2013, c. 315, §2, is further 
amended to read:
4.  Manufacturer recycling programs for mercury-added lamps.  Effective 
January 1, 2011, each Each manufacturer of mercury-added lamps sold or distributed for 
household use in the State for use by covered entities on or after January 1, 2001 shall 
individually or collectively implement a department-approved program for the recycling 
of mercury-added lamps from households covered entities.
A.  The recycling program required under this subsection must include, but is not 
limited to:
(1)  Convenient collection locations located sites adequate to serve the needs of 
covered entities in rural and urban areas throughout the State where residents 
covered entities can drop off their household mercury-added lamps without cost, 
including but not limited to municipal collection sites and participating retail 
establishments;.  The program must include a method of determining the 
adequate number and geographic distribution of collection sites based on 
geographic information system modeling.
No later than January 1, 2020, the collection system implemented under the 
program must provide at least 90% of the residents of the State with a permanent 
collection site within 15 miles of their residence unless the commissioner 
determines that this requirement is not practicable due to geographic constraints, 
in which case the commissioner may approve an alternative collection system 
that includes a geographic distribution of collection sites but that does not 
otherwise meet this requirement.
Unless otherwise approved by the commissioner, the collection system 
implemented under the program:
(a)  Must provide at least 2 collection sites within a population center of at 
least 30,000 residents and an additional collection site for each additional 
30,000 residents within the population center; and
(b)  Must ensure that the collection sites required under division (a) are 
located in a manner that provides residents of the population center with 
convenient and reasonably equitable access to the collection sites;
(2)  Handling and recycling equipment and practices in compliance with the 
universal waste rules adopted pursuant to section 1319-O, subsection 1, 
paragraph F, with subsection 6 if a crushing device is used and with all other 
applicable requirements;
(3)  Effective Provision of education and outreach efforts by a manufacturer to 
promote the program, which must include, but are not limited to, strategies for 
education of and outreach to covered entities in all areas of the State and ensuring 
understanding of collection options by covered entities.  The education and 
outreach, including, but not limited to, must, at a minimum, include posters, 
window clings and point-of-purchase signs and other materials that are provided 
to retail establishments collection sites without cost, that can be prominently 
displayed and that will be easily visible to covered entities; and outreach to the 
general public, including annual Internet-based media campaigns and print and 
radio media campaigns conducted in rural and urban areas in the State; and
(4)  An annual report to the department on the number of mercury-added lamps 
recycled under the manufacturer's program, the estimated percentage of mercury-
added lamps available for recycling that were recycled under the program and the 
methodology for estimating the number of mercury-added lamps available for 
recycling, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the recycling program, 
recommendations for increasing the number of lamps recycled under the 
recycling program and an accounting of the costs associated with administering 
and implementing the recycling program.
(5)  A goal of increasing the percentage of the residents of the State that are 
aware of the requirement to recycle mercury-added lamps and the availability of 
mercury-added lamp recycling at collection sites implemented under the program 
to 50% by the end of the 2020 program year and to 80% by the end of the 2023 
program year; 
(6) Provisions for routinely evaluating the effectiveness of the education and 
outreach under subparagraph (3);
(7)  Procedures for improving the education and outreach under subparagraph (3) 
if the goal under subparagraph (5) is not achieved;
(8)  At a minimum, a half-time employee of one or more manufacturers whose 
job duties are dedicated to implementing the program in the State; and
(9)  An annual report to the department, which must include, at a minimum:
(a)  The number of mercury-added lamps recycled under the program;
(b)  The estimated percentage of mercury-added lamps available for recycling 
that were recycled under the program and recommendations for program 
modifications to increase the percentage of lamps recycled under the 
program;
(c)  The methodology for estimating the number of mercury-added lamps 
available for recycling, which must include an assumption of the average 
lifespan of a lamp by type of lamp and number of lamps sold by type in the 
years on which the percentage under division (b) is calculated.  Proprietary 
information submitted to the department pursuant to this division that is 
identified by the manufacturer as proprietary information is confidential and 
must be handled by the department in the same manner as confidential 
information is handled under section 1310-B;
(d)  A description of the education and outreach under subparagraph (3) and 
an evaluation of the effectiveness of that education and outreach, including a 
description of the methods used to measure consumer awareness of the 
requirement to recycle mercury-added lamps and, beginning with the annual 
report for 2020 and every 2 years thereafter, the results of an assessment of 
consumer awareness of the program as completed by an independent 3rd-
party assessor;
(e)  The location of and contact information for each collection site 
established under the program and an assessment of the convenience of the 
collection system established under the program;
(f)  An accounting of the costs associated with implementing and 
administering the program; and
(g)  Any recommendations for changes to the program to improve the 
convenience of the collection system, consumer education or program 
evaluation.
B.  A manufacturer required to implement a recycling program under this subsection 
shall submit its proposed recycling program for department review and approval.  
The department shall solicit public comment on the proposed program before 
approving or denying the program.
C.  Beginning April 1, 2011, a manufacturer not in compliance with this section is 
prohibited from offering any mercury-added lamp for final sale in the State or 
distributing any mercury-added lamp in the State.  A manufacturer not in compliance 
with this section shall provide support to retailers to ensure the manufacturer's 
mercury-added lamps are not offered for sale, sold at final sale or distributed in the 
State.
D.  Beginning April 1, 2011, a retailer may not offer for final sale a mercury-added 
lamp produced by a manufacturer not in compliance with this section.  The 
department shall notify retailers of the manufacturers of mercury-added lamps not in 
compliance with this section.
E.  Beginning in 2013, and biennially thereafter, the department shall calculate the 
percentage of mercury-added lamps recycled from households covered entities and 
report to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over 
natural resources matters on any modifications to the manufacturer recycling 
programs it intends to make to improve mercury-added lamp recycling rates and any 
recommendations for statutory changes needed to facilitate mercury-added lamp 
collection and recycling.  The report may be included in the report required pursuant 
to section 1772, subsection 1.
F.  The department may determine that a manufacturer's recycling program is in 
compliance with paragraph A, subparagraphs (1), (2) and (4) for the collection of 
compact fluorescent lamps from households if the manufacturer provides adequate 
financial support for the collection and recycling of such lamps to municipalities and 
a conservation program established pursuant to Title 35-A, section 10110 and 
implemented by the Efficiency Maine Trust.
SUMMARY
This bill, which is reported out by the Joint Standing Committee on Environment and 
Natural Resources pursuant to Joint Order 2019, H.P. 883, implements the Department of 
Environmental Protection's recommendations regarding the State's mercury-added lamp 
law as included in the department's annual report on the State's product stewardship 
programs.
The bill makes a number of changes to the State's mercury-added lamp law, including 
the following.
1.  It amends the scope of mercury-added lamp recycling programs to require 
acceptance by such programs of mercury-added lamps from covered entities, which are 
defined in the bill as households, elementary schools or secondary schools located in the 
State; businesses located in the State that employ 100 or fewer individuals; and nonprofit 
organizations located in the State that are exempt from taxation under the United States 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Section 501(c)(3) and employ 100 or fewer individuals.  
Under current law, such recycling programs are required to accept mercury-added lamps 
only from households.
2.  It revises the requirements for mercury-added lamp recycling programs, including 
provisions regarding collection sites and education and outreach efforts, and adds 
program performance goals.
3.  It clarifies the information required to be reported annually to the department by 
manufacturers of mercury-added lamps.
The committee has not taken a position on the substance of the bill and by reporting 
this bill out, the committee is not suggesting and does not intend to suggest that it agrees 
or disagrees with any aspect of this bill.  The committee is reporting the bill out for the 
sole purpose of obtaining a printed bill that can be referred to the committee for a public 
hearing and subsequent committee action in the normal course.