Pennsylvania denies Nulife Glass a variance for CRTs

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has denied Dunkirk, New York-based Nulife Glass NY’s recent request for a variance from classifying used cathode ray tubes (CRTs) as solid waste. The old CRTs currently are stored at five warehouses in Pennsylvania. Under the initial plan, the collected CRTs would be stored in Pennsylvania and smelted at Nulife’s operations in Dunkirk.

In denying the variance, the Pennsylvania DEP says the CRTs include vacuum tubes and associated materials found in older model televisions and computer monitors. These materials contain high lead content and exhibit toxic characteristics.

Since May 2014, Nulife has transported about 17 million pounds of CRT materials to five warehouses in the state while it was in the process of obtaining a permit from the New York Department of Conservation to construct and operate a lead smelter to recycle the CRT glass in Dunkirk.

Since that time, DEP has been informed that Nulife will cease its lead smelting operations at the Dunkirk facility and surrender its Title V Air Permit.

Simon Greer, the owner of Nulife Glass, says the company has decided to relocate the operations from New York to Virginia and plans to use the inventoried CRTs at that facility when it becomes operational. The existing Dunkirk site will continue to be used to dismantle CRTS and service existing customers, he says.

DEP says it denied the variance request because Nulife failed to adequately address the criteria for a variance under the Federal CRT Rule, including:

• the manner of recycling the CRT materials;
• when the material would be recycled; and
• the reason the stored CRT material had accumulated without being recycled.

The DEP also notes that Nulife failed to provide adequate assurances of its financial ability to properly dispose of the speculatively accumulated CRT materials.

In conjunction with the denial of the variance request, the DEP has issued an order requiring the company to remove all 17 million pounds of stored CRT materials from the five warehouses within a year and to remove at least 5 million pounds of CRT materials by June 30, 2017, while continuing to remove CRT materials within a designated time frame until all CRT materials are removed by no later than Feb. 28, 2018.

“DEP has an obligation to prevent pollution and to protect the health and safety of its citizens,” says Jim Miller, regional director of Northwest PA DEP. “While we encourage new industries and technologies to address the recycling of older televisions and computers, those entities must do so within the rules and regulations established to protect Pennsylvanians.”

Greer says the company was clear with its original plan to accumulate the inventory of CRTs and feed them to the smelter when it was operational. He says he has yet to decide what course of action the company will take regarding the state’s order.

In a written statement following the Pennsylvania DEP’s decision, Nulife notes that it has invested 20 years of research and development and millions of dollars to develop a unique technology that specifically and solely addresses the leaded glass fraction of CRT funnel glass and looks forward to a continued business to deliver this service to customers seeking a domestic solution to the escalating CRT glass problem.

Regarding its storage practices, the company says its processed and used CRTs are separated and stored appropriately and with regard to the composition and weight of a processed CRT panel glass, which represents about 60 percent of the weight of the CRT and funnel glass 30 percent of total weight. The funnel is a leaded glass containing about 20 percent lead oxide.