Section 25215.

The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a)  There are currently 24 million motor vehicles registered in this state and each contains a lead acid battery for starting, lighting, and ignition applications.

(b)  An estimated 8 million used lead acid batteries are generated and replaced in this state each year. The average lead acid battery contains 17.5 pounds of lead, 1.5 gallons of sulfuric acid, and 1.6 pounds of polypropylene.

(c)  There has existed an efficient and comprehensive recycling process whereby used lead acid batteries are returned by the consumer to the lead acid battery retailer when a new lead acid battery is purchased by the consumer, often involving an "exchange" discount. These returned lead batteries are then picked up and eventually transported to secondary lead smelters who then reclaim the lead and polypropylene for use in new batteries and other products and neutralize the sulfuric acid.

(d)  This lead acid battery recycling process is losing its comprehensive nature and, in recent years, an estimated 30 percent of all used lead acid batteries nationwide are not finding their way into the recycling process. In California, this gap translates into 2.4 million used lead acid batteries escaping the recycling process each year.

(e)  The decline in the lead acid battery recycling process is due to a combination of depressed lead prices, higher operating costs, and an erosion in the exchange process between the consumer and retailer of lead acid batteries. Increasing numbers of consumers are not returning their old lead acid batteries when purchasing new ones and increasing numbers of distributors and retailers are not accepting used lead acid batteries.

(f)  While there are no data on where these batteries are going, it is very likely that they are being stored indefinitely in private garages, or disposed of in municipal sanitary landfills, on roadsides, in ditches, under bridges, in bodies of water, and at secluded locations.

(g)  These 2.4 million unrecycled lead acid batteries are not being disposed of properly and represent the introduction of 210,000 tons of lead, 3 million gallons of sulfuric acid, and 3.2 million pounds of polypropylene, all hazardous waste, into the environment each year.

(h)  The introduction of these volumes of hazardous waste poses a significant and unacceptable risk to the public health and safety and steps need to be taken to attain the renewed viability of the lead acid battery recycling process.

(i)  If consumers and retailers were encouraged to return and collect these used lead acid batteries for the recycling process, a major source of hazardous waste that is presently being disposed of improperly could be successfully eliminated.

(Added by Stats. 1988, Ch. 209, Sec. 1. Effective June 27, 1988.)