Florida Senate - 2015 CS for SB 912
By the Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation;
and Senator Bean
592-03277-15 2015912c1
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to recycled and recovered materials;
3 amending s. 403.727, F.S.; exempting a person who
4 sells, transfers, or arranges for the transfer of
5 recycled and recovered materials from liability for
6 hazardous substances released or threatened to be
7 released from the receiving facility or site under
8 certain circumstances; defining the term “recycled and
9 recovered materials”; providing retroactive
10 application under certain circumstances; providing an
11 effective date.
12
13 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
14
15 Section 1. Subsection (4) of section 403.727, Florida
16 Statues, is amended, present subsection (8) of that section is
17 redesignated as subsection (9), and a new subsection (8) is
18 added to that section, to read:
19 403.727 Violations; defenses, penalties, and remedies.—
20 (4) In addition to any other liability under this chapter,
21 and subject only to the defenses set forth in subsections (5),
22 (6), and (7), and (8):
23 (a) The owner and operator of a facility;
24 (b) Any person who at the time of disposal of any hazardous
25 substance owned or operated any facility at which such hazardous
26 substance was disposed of;
27 (c) Any person who, by contract, agreement, or otherwise,
28 arranged for disposal or treatment, or arranged with a
29 transporter for transport for disposal or treatment, of
30 hazardous substances owned or possessed by such person or by any
31 other party or entity at any facility owned or operated by
32 another party or entity and containing such hazardous
33 substances; and
34 (d) Any person who accepts or has accepted any hazardous
35 substances for transport to disposal or treatment facilities or
36 sites selected by such person,
37
38 is liable for all costs of removal or remedial action incurred
39 by the department under this section and damages for injury to,
40 destruction of, or loss of natural resources, including the
41 reasonable costs of assessing such injury, destruction, or loss
42 resulting from the release or threatened release of a hazardous
43 substance as defined in the Comprehensive Environmental
44 Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, Pub. L. No.
45 96-510.
46 (8) In order to promote the reuse and recycling of
47 recovered materials and to remove potential impediments to
48 recycling, a person who sells, transfers, or arranges for the
49 transfer of recycled and recovered materials to a facility owned
50 or operated by another person for the purpose of reclamation,
51 recycling, manufacturing, or reuse of such materials is relieved
52 from liability for hazardous substances released or threatened
53 to be released from the receiving facility. This relief from
54 liability does not apply if the person fails to exercise
55 reasonable care with respect to the management and handling of
56 the recycled and recovered materials, or if the arrangement for
57 reclamation, recycling, manufacturing, or reuse of such
58 materials was not reasonably expected to be legitimate based on
59 information generally available to the person at the time of the
60 arrangement. For the purpose of this subsection, the term
61 “recycled and recovered materials” means scrap paper; scrap
62 plastic; scrap glass; scrap textiles; scrap rubber, other than
63 whole tires; scrap metal; or spent lead-acid or nickel-cadmium
64 batteries or other spent batteries. The term includes minor
65 amounts of material incident to or adhering to the scrap
66 material as a result of its normal and customary use before
67 becoming scrap. The term does not include hazardous waste. This
68 subsection applies to causes of action accruing on or after July
69 1, 2015, and applies retroactively to causes of action accruing
70 before July 1, 2015, for which a lawsuit has not been filed.
71 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2015.