As CalWatchdog reported in April, supervisors had taken initial steps to mandate that the costs involved in collecting and disposing of unused prescription drugs and syringes be shifted from Los Angeles County to U.S. and international pharmaceutical companies.

The measure wasn’t justified with claims that these companies somehow had a moral and ethical responsibility to pay for disposal of their potentially dangerous products. Instead, officials asserted that it was a costly and difficult task that the county was ill-suited to handle. This type of trash is “one of the things we’re completely ill-equipped to take. … We just had one of our biggest days ever just a few months ago where we had almost 27 1/2 pounds of needles come through the line. The workers up there have leather gloves, but there are no gloves made that can stop a fine, little puncture from a needle,” a Burbank recylcing manager told KPCC.

Board disregards testimony of county health executive

But this week, three of five county supervisors went against the proposal, bucking the testimony of interim county Health Officer Jeffrey Gunzehauser, who linked ineffective drug disposal policies to the nation’s opiate overdose epidemic.

Instead, Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas, Don Knabe and Mike Antonovich accepted the pharmaceutical companies’ offer “to pay for an education and outreach program about existing take-back options and to explain how to dispose of unused medications in the trash, a method opposed by county public health officials,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

This didn’t sit well with the Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. They wanted the program adopted and hold out hope it can be revived.

While the L.A. County plan is unusual, it has a precedent. In 2013, lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown enacted Senate Bill 254. The law requires mattress manufacturers “to create and manage a mattress recycling organization that will provide recycling services to municipalities for free. The program will be financed by a visible mattress recycling charge, or ‘eco-fee,’ which will be collected from consumers at the point of sale.”

Mattress manufacturers complained intensely about the law, but talk of a lawsuit was never followed up on.

The measure is unusual in that it assigns cleanup costs to the producer of a product instead of to its users. But many officials throughout Los Angeles County depict themselves as overwhelmed by the problem posed by proper disposal of the medical waste, especially items that pose health risks to trash handlers.

Burbank recycling coordinator Kreigh Hampel told KPCC that this waste is “one of the things we’re completely ill-equipped to take. … We just had one of our biggest days ever just a few months ago where we had almost 27 1/2 pounds of needles come through the line. The workers up there have leather gloves, but there are no gloves made that can stop a fine, little puncture from a needle.”

Drug companies question wisdom of approach

Santa Clara County reportedly has a similar law. But pharmaceutical companies appear ready to step up efforts to assign them a costly new task when the party involved is the most populated county in the United States:

“We agree that it’s really vital that consumers dispose of their medicines properly,” says Priscilla VanderVeer, spokeswoman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a national trade association.

But “a mandated costly and frankly inefficient take-back program is not the way to do that,” she says. “There are cheaper, less burdensome ways to dispose of medicines.”

VanderVeer says a mandatory program would force a liability risk onto pharmacies that handle controlled substances. A better option, she says, would be to educate residents about proper disposal and to promote voluntary drug drop-off sites, such as those offered by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and some pharmacies.

That’s from KPCC’s reporting.

Mattress law set precedent for requiring help in cleanup

Forcing producers to help oversee the cleanup of the goods they make has a precedent in California. In September 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 254. The Waste360 website reported that “the law requires mattress manufacturers to create and manage a mattress recycling organization that will provide recycling services to municipalities for free. The program will be financed by a visible mattress recycling charge, or ‘eco-fee,’ which will be collected from consumers at the point of sale.”

The mattress program, which began gearing up this January, draws criticism from mattress makers.

Ryan Trainer, president of the Mattress Recycling Council, told Capitol Public Radio earlier this year that “at the end of its useful life, a used mattress has relatively low value. It’s a very bulky product and so we don’t want to handle it multiple times before it gets to the recycler and in turn to the scrap markets where the foam and steel can be reused in making new products.”

But so far mattress companies haven’t sued over the law, as some expected when it was first discussed several years ago.

But the bill proposes a new fee on mattress purchases in order to fund the recycling program. This new tax has many in the Capitol opposed to the bill. But is this actually a good solution to a growing problem?

There is currently no law addressing the problem of illegally dumped mattresses.

SB 254 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, and Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, would mandate mattress manufacturers to pay the entire cost of mattress recycling — a cost which would undoubtedly be tacked on to the price of a new mattress. It has already been passed by the Senate, and will be in the Assembly next week.

Mattress manufacturers are on board with the program.

“Illegally dumped mattresses are a terrible blight on our communities,”  Hancock said.  “They not only deface a neighborhood but they can become a health hazard and a breeding ground for mold and pests. This instantly tips over into a blighted neighborhood.”

Hancock has fought for this bill for several years, but only recently gained more supporters with the addition of Sen. Correa on the bill as co-author.

A similar bill introduced by Hancock last year passed the State Assembly but died on the Senate floor as the 2012 legislative session ended.

Mattress manufactures leading the issue

Mattress manufacturers chose to get out in front of the problem rather than wait to be regulated without any input. Most feel SB 254 could be a win-win, without actually costing Californians much more at checkout.

In an interview in April with Christopher Hudgins, with the International Sleep Products Association, he said there are several issues with old mattresses, besides the unsightly abandoned mattress street litter in some areas of the state. Faced with Hancock’s bill and a potential mandate, his association worked up an alternative solution.

Many mattress manufacturers already recycle old mattresses — the materials are highly recyclable.  But it is expensive and labor-intensive, according to Hudgins. And some mattress manufacturers say they recycle the old mattresses, not by destroying them, but by selling them to a third party for refurbishment and eventual resale. The problem is, the old mattresses aren’t always refurbished properly prior to being sold again.

Mattress economics

There is an economic concern: cash-strapped cities are forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars collecting and disposing of abandoned mattresses using the city waste management programs. “That’s money that could be better spent on police and other vital services for the community,” Hancock said.

SB 254 would require mattress manufacturers to submit a recovery and recycling plan to CalRecycle by April 1, 2015. Consistent with existing state policy, the plans would have a goal of recycling at least 75 percent of used mattresses in California by January 1, 2020.

The program would be financed by a point-of-sale fee upon the purchase of a new mattress.  The fee collected does not go into the general fund;  it would be remitted directly to the non-governmental group responsible for sustaining the mattress recycling program.

Recyclers are also on board with SB 254 and say this program will help increase recycling programs and create jobs. There are currently eight locations which recycle mattresses in California. While the current process to dismantle and turn used mattresses into raw materials for reuse is arduous, this is part of the reason a fee is needed to offset these costs.

Supporters of SB 254 believe as the recycling law is implemented, and the financial incentive is created, more recycling centers will open. Some will become more automated than others, supporters claim this will create jobs, while removing the burden of having used mattresses in our landfills, and diminishing the illegal dumping of used mattresses.

Hancock and Correa assured skeptics the fee will be kept as low as possible — “It’s a win-win-win bill.”

SB 254 by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, and Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, would mandate mattress manufacturers to pay the entire cost of mattress recycling — a cost which would undoubtedly be tacked on to the price of a new mattress. It  has already been passed by the Senate and will be heard in the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday.

The bill would require mattress manufacturers to organize, operate and pay for all mattress recycling in the state. “Illegally dumped mattresses are a terrible blight on our communities,” Hancock said in a press release.  “They not only deface a neighborhood but they can become a health hazard and a breeding ground for mold and pests. Cash-strapped cities are forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars collecting and disposing of abandoned mattresses.  That’s money that could be better spent on police and other vital services for the community.”

But it’s already illegal to dump a mattress, isn’t it? Yes it is.

I asked Shelly Sullivan, the spokeswoman for Californians for Mattress Recycling, what this program will cost the state. Sullivan said the newly created organization would reimburse the state for appropriate oversight costs.

Mattress recycling organization would be non-profit

If enacted, SB 254 would create a non-profit mattress recycling organization made up of retailers and manufacturers whose duty would be to plan, implement, and administer a state system to collect discarded used mattresses, dismantle them and recycle their materials for use in new products.

SB 254 would require mattress manufacturers to submit a recovery and recycling plan to CalRecycle by April 1, 2015. Consistent with existing state policy, the plans would have a goal of recycling at least 75 percent of used mattresses in California by Jan. 1, 2020.