FINAL BILL REPORT

SSB 6700

                              C 123 L 90

BYSenate Committee on Transportation (originally sponsored by Senators Patterson, Metcalf, DeJarnatt, Amondson, Benitz, Newhouse, Sellar, Hansen, Conner and Madsen)

Regulating trucking of recovered materials.

Senate Committee on Transportation

House Committe on Environmental Affairs

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

Trucking companies transporting only recyclables are regulated as common and contract carriers by the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC).  These carriers are regulated under the motor freight carrier statutes rather than the solid waste collection company statutes because the commodity has value and is recycled rather than transported for disposal only.

The entry standard is Public Convenience & Necessity (PC&N).  The applicant must prove that there is a need for the service and that the proposed service will not negatively impact existing carriers providing similar services.  The carriers may file their own rates or use the UTC published hourly rates.

When a carrier co-mingles garbage and recyclable materials, the company is regulated as a solid waste collection company.  Solid waste carriers are subject to the PC&N entry standard and file their own rates.

SUMMARY:

Certain movements of "recovered materials" by motor freight carriers (1) are exempt from rate regulation by the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC), and (2) qualify under the UTC's more relaxed entry standard of Fit, Willing and Able.  These provisions apply when transporting (1) recovered materials from a site generating a minimum of 10,000 tons of recovered materials per year to a reprocessing facility or end-use manufacturing site, (2) recovered materials from a reprocessing facility to another reprocessing facility or end-use manufacturing site, and (3) mixed waste paper from a reprocessing facility to an energy recovery facility.  Qualifying recyclers are subject to a one-time $25 registration fee, payment of the annual regulatory fee and the UTC's safety and insurance requirements.

"Recovered materials" are materials collected for recycling or reuse, such as paper, glass, aluminum, plastics, used wood, metals, yard waste, used oil and tires that would otherwise be transported to a disposal or incineration site.  Wood waste generated by a logging, chipping, or milling activity is not a recovered material.

Administrative rules are adopted by the UTC requiring carriers of recovered materials to submit information that may be necessary for waste stream management analysis.  The services that garbage companies and recyclers may provide are clarified.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

     Senate   45    3

     House 97  0 (House amended)

     Senate   38    4 (Senate concurred)

EFFECTIVE:March 21, 1990