Governor Newsom signed RCRC-sponsored Assembly Bill 2667 (Hadwick), which seeks to help schools manage and properly dispose of vapes confiscated from students. The bill also bans the sale of vapes that are disguised to conceal their intended purpose and vapes that contain interactive video game capabilities.
As a result of objections from the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the author was forced to remove another component of the bill that would have allowed local household hazardous waste collection facilities to safely disassemble vapes to reduce disposal costs.
Vapes are ubiquitous, but are extremely challenging for local governments to manage in their household hazardous waste collection facilities, with disposal costs approaching $350/5-gallon bucket. Schools and law enforcement agencies also have problems navigating how to properly dispose of those products and shouldering associated costs.
In particular, AB 2667:
- Allows a school to transport vape pens and devices confiscated from students to a household hazardous waste (HHW) collection facility without having to comply with existing requirements to use a registered hazardous waste transporter or prepare and submit a manifest for shipment of those materials.
- Clarifies how to determine how many vapes can be generated or accepted under the 2.2lb/month limit for very small quantity generators.
- Allows a school or HHWCF to rely upon federal US EPA guidance on how to dispose of e-cigarettes.
- Creates a presumption that the amount of acutely hazardous waste contained in a vape does not exceed the maximum capacity of the cartridge contained in that device.
- Allows a public agency, contractor, or registered hazardous waste transporter to transport vapes confiscated from students by a school to a local HHW collection facility. Vapes must be transported in closed containers and bear the school’s EPA identification number.
- Requires DTSC to evaluate opportunities to increase the safety and convenience for management and disposal of vape pens and devices confiscated from students by a school.
- Bans the sale of disguised vapes that imitate another product to conceal the nature of the vape product from parents, teachers, or other adults.
- Bans the sale of vapes that include interactive videogame capabilities within the product.
- Imposes penalties for violations and allows for enforcement by local governments or the state.
- Allows a household hazardous waste collection facility to accept more than 1 kilogram of extremely hazardous waste from a very small quantity generator at a single time as long as it accepts no more than 12 kilograms of extremely hazardous waste from that generator in a calendar year.
Another bill signed by Governor Newsom, Assembly Bill 762 (Irwin), bans the sale of single-use, disposable vapes.
For more information, contact RCRC Senior Policy Advocate, John Kennedy.