Relates to establishing the paint stewardship program

The representative organization will submit a plan to establish the paint stewardship program to DEC by March 1, 2015 for approval. The program will minimize public sector involvement in the management of post-consumer paint by reducing its generation, and will establish agreements to collect, transport, reuse, recycle, and/or burn for energy recovery post-consumer paint at appropriately licensed facilities using environmentally sound management practices.

The plan shall also provide for post-consumer paint collection sites, with at least one site located within a fifteen mile radius of ail incorporated cities and census-designated places in the state, and one additional site for every 30,000 people living in those areas, unless otherwise approved by DEC. No fees can be assessed for collection.

The legislation specifies the details to be included in the plan, including audit, education and outreach to consumers, and how the post-consumer paint will be collected, treated, stored, transported and disposed. Fees of $5,000 per producer and $10,000 for each organization are required when the plan is submitted to cover the costs of DEC review of the plan.

The legislation requires a paint stewardship assessment to be added to the Coat of all architectural paint sold to retailers and distributors. The assessment amount must be proposed in the plan, and approved by an independent auditor to be consistent with the plan's budget. The assessment will be added after approval by DEC at the time of plan implementation.

Retailers are permitted on a voluntary basis to be paint collection points. Retailers will be provided education materials for use at the point of sale by the representative organization on the program and the assessment, including that the charge for operation of the paint stewardship program is included in the purchase price of the paint.

After the implementation of the paint stewardship program, no producer, distributor or retailer shall sell or offer for sale architectural paint if the producer of the paint is not a member of the representative organization. The legislation requires a detailed annual report to be filed October 15, 2018, and annually thereafter, containing operational details, volume of post-consumer paint collected, cost of the program, and other details. A fee of $3,000 will accompany each annual report to cover the cost of DEC review.

The legislation requires bi-annual reporting to the Legislature commencing January 15, 2019. Civil penalties can be imposed for violations of this law.

Justification

The product Stewardship institute estimates that approximately 3.1 million gallons of paint go unused each year in New York. The costs of collecting and managing this paint typically fall on local government. If this responsibility were managed by the paint manufacturers, local governments would save approximately $25 million per year.

In addition to reduced costs on local taxpayers, a Paint Stewardship Program will create convenient recycling opportunities and green sector jobs, and reduce disposal in favor of recycling and result in less waste, as consumers will become smarter and more efficient shoppers for paint.

New York has a unique opportunity to partner with the paint industry to reduce local government costs, increase recycling and reduce waste.

Nationally, states that have implemented comparable programs are showing impressive results. Oregon has collected and recycled over 1,000,000 gallons of paint since its program was implemented in July 2010. California just launched its program in the Fall of 2012 with over 350 new collection locations accepting paint for recycling.

Prior legislative history

S4690A Of 2014-15

Fiscal implications

None. The regulatory costs to DEC will be covered by filing fees.

Effective date

Immediately.