H. B. 3265
(By Delegate Kominar)
[Introduced March 20, 2009; referred to the
Committee on Energy, Industry and Labor, Economic Development and
Small Business then the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §22-15A-2 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the electronic device takeback
program;
clarifying the definition of covered electronic
device; clarifying that only manufacturers of devices sold to
consumers must register with the Department of Environmental
Protection; exempting certain covered electronic devices from
coverage; and including certain electronic products as video
display devices.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22-15A-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15A. THE A.
JAMES MANCHIN REHABILITATION ENVIRONMENTAL
ACTION PLAN.
§22-15A-2. Definitions.
Unless the context clearly indicates a different meaning or
defined elsewhere in this chapter, as used in this article:
(1) "Beneficial use" means the use or reuse of whole waste
tires or tire derived material which are reused in constructing
retaining walls, rebuilding highway shoulders and subbase, building
highway crash attenuation barriers and other civil engineering
applications, feed hopper or watering troughs for livestock, other
agricultural uses approved by the Department of Environmental
Protection, playground equipment, boat or truck dock construction,
house or building construction, go-cart, motorbike or race track
barriers, recapping, alternative daily cover or similar types of
beneficial applications:
Provided, That waste tires may not be
reused as fencing, as erosion control structures, along stream
banks or river banks or reused in any manner where human health or
the environment, as determined by the Secretary of the Department
of Environmental Protection, is put at risk.
(2) "Brand" means the name, symbol, logo, trademark, or other
information that identifies a product rather than the components of
the product.
(3) "Collected for commercial purposes" means taking solid
waste for disposal from any person for remuneration regardless of
whether or not the person taking the solid waste is a common
carrier by motor vehicle governed by article two, chapter twenty-
four-a of this code.
(4) "Computer" means a desktop, personal computer or laptop
computer, including the computer monitor. Computer does not
include a personal digital assistant device, computer peripheral
devices such as a mouse or other similar pointing device, a printer
or a detachable keyboard.
(5) "Consumer" means an individual.
(5) (6) "Court" means any circuit, magistrate or municipal
court.
(6) (7) "Covered electronic device" means a television,
computer or video display device with a screen that is greater than
four inches measured diagonally
that is intended for use by a
consumer. "Covered electronic device" does not include a video
display device that is part of a motor vehicle or that is
contained
within a household appliance or commercial, industrial or medical
equipment functionally or physically a part of, or connected to, or
integrated with a piece of equipment or system designed and
intended for use in an industrial, governmental, commercial,
research and development, laboratory, or medical setting,
including, but not limited to, diagnostic, monitoring, control or
medical products, as defined under the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act, or equipment used for security, sensing, monitoring,
anti-terrorism, emergency services purposes or equipment designed
and intended primarily for use by professional.
(7) (8) "Department" means the Department of Environmental Protection.
(8) (9) "Litter" means all waste material, including, but not
limited to, any garbage, refuse, trash, disposable package,
container, can, bottle, paper, covered electronic devices, ashes,
cigarette or cigar butt, carcass of any dead animal or any part
thereof or any other offensive or unsightly matter, but not
including the wastes of primary processes of mining, logging,
sawmilling, farming or manufacturing.
(9) (10) "Litter receptacle" means those containers suitable
for the depositing of litter at each respective public area
designated by the secretary's rules promulgated pursuant to
subsection (e), section three of this article.
(10) (11) "Manufacturer" means a person that is the brand
owner of a covered electronic device or television sold or offered
for sale in this state by any means, including transactions
conducted through retail sales outlets, catalogs or the Internet.
(11) (12) "Person" means a natural person, corporation, firm,
partnership, association or society and the plural as well as the
singular.
(12) (13) "Public area" means an area outside of a
municipality, including public road and highway rights-of-way,
parks and recreation areas owned or controlled by this state or any
county of this state or an area held open for unrestricted access
by the general public.
(13) (14) "Recyclable materials" means those materials that
would otherwise become solid waste for disposal in a refuse
disposal system and which may be collected, separated or processed
and returned to the marketplace in the form of raw materials or
products.
(14) (15) "Remediate or remediation" means to remove all
litter, solid waste and tires located above grade at a site:
Provided, That remediation does not include clean up of hazardous
waste.
(15) (16) "Television" means any
telecommunication system
device that can receive moving pictures and sound broadcast over a
distance and includes a television tuner or a video display device
peripheral to a computer in which the display contains a television
tuner electronic device that contains a tuner that locks on to a
selected carrier frequency and is capable of receiving and
displaying of television or video programming via broadcast, cable,
or satellite, including, without limitation, any direct view or
projection television with a viewable screen of nine inches or
larger whose display technology is based on cathode ray tube (CRT),
plasma, liquid crystal (LCD), digital light processing (DLP),
liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS), silicon crystal reflective
display (SXRD), light emitting diode (LED), or similar technology
marketed and intended for use by a household. This term does not
include a computer.
(16) (17) "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Department of
Environmental Protection.
(17) "Video display device" means an electronic device with an
output surface that displays or is capable of displaying moving
graphical images or visual representations of image sequences or
pictures that show a number of quickly changing images on a screen
to create the illusion of motion. Video display device includes a
device that is an integral part of the display and cannot easily be
removed from the display by the consumer and that produces the
moving image on the screen. A "video display device" may use a
cathode-ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), gas plasma,
digital light processing, other image-projection technology or
imaging display technologies.
(18) "Waste tire" means any continuous solid or pneumatic
rubber covering designed to encircle the wheel of a vehicle but
which has been discarded, abandoned or is no longer suitable for
its original, intended purpose nor suitable for recapping, or other
beneficial use because of wear, damage or defect. A tire is no
longer considered to be suitable for its original intended purpose
when it fails to meet the minimum requirements to pass a West
Virginia motor vehicle safety inspection. Used tires located at a
commercial recapping facility or tire dealer for the purpose of
being reused or recapped are not waste tires.
(19) "Waste tire monofill or monofill" means an approved solid waste facility where no solid waste except waste tires are placed
for the purpose of long term storage for eventual retrieval for
marketing purposes.
(20) "Waste tire processing facility" means a solid waste
facility or manufacturer that accepts waste tires generated by
sources other than the owner or operator of the facility for
processing by such means as cryogenics, pyrolysis, pyroprossing
cutting, splitting, shredding, quartering, grinding or otherwise
breaking down waste tires for the purposes of disposal, reuse,
recycling and/or marketing.
(21) "Waters of the state" means generally, without
limitation, natural or artificial lakes, rivers, streams, creeks,
branches, brooks, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, wells,
watercourses and wetlands.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify provisions of the
electronic devices takeback program by requiring registration only
by manufacturers of electronic devices sold to consumers, exempting
electronic devices intended for commercial, medical or governmental
use, and expressly covering certain computer and television video
products.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.