September 1, 2006—The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it is streamlining the federal hazardous waste management requirements for cathode ray tubes and CRT glass destined for recycling. EPA says these safe yet simplified standards aim to increase the collection and recycling of CRTs, thereby saving energy and conserving resources, allowing the recovered lead to be reused in other ways, and reducing the amount of lead in landfills.
The glass in CRTs, the video display components of televisions and computer monitors, typically contains enough lead to require managing it as hazardous waste under certain circumstances. Under the previous regulations, businesses and other organizations that recycle or dispose of CRTs were sometimes unclear about the proper way to recycle or dispose of this equipment, explains EPA.
Under these new regulations, used, unbroken CRTs are not regulated as hazardous waste unless they are stored for more than a year. EPA is setting simpler, more manageable standards for unbroken CRTs because it says the risk of lead releases from them is very low. Limited storage requirements apply only to CRT recyclers and collectors.
Used, broken CRTs are not regulated as hazardous waste as long as certain good-housekeeping practices are followed. To remain unregulated, CRTs undergoing glass processing must follow the same simplified requirements, except that they must be processed so that lead from the glass is not volatilized. CRT glass that has been processed and sent to a CRT glass manufacturer or a lead smelter also is unregulated, as long as it is kept in storage less than a year.
For more information about the rule, visit EPA.
