Manufacturers must have a recovery plan before selling equipment in Missouri, label the equipment, provide consumer return and recycling information, and file an annual report with the department.
*260.1062. Recovery plan required, contents — use of existing infrastructure permitted — report required. — 1. Before a manufacturer may offer equipment for sale in this state, the manufacturer shall: (1) Adopt and implement a recovery plan; (2) Submit a written copy of the recovery plan to the department; and (3) Affix a permanent, readily visible label to the equipment with the manufacturer's brand. 2. The recovery plan shall enable a consumer to recycle equipment without paying a separate fee at the time of recycling and shall include provisions for: (1) The manufacturer's collection from a consumer of any equipment that has reached the end of its useful life and is labeled with the manufacturer's brand; and (2) Recycling or reuse of equipment collected under subdivision (1) of this subsection. 3. The collection of equipment provided under the recovery plan shall be: (1) Reasonably convenient and available to consumers in this state; and (2) Designed to meet the collection needs of consumers in this state. 4. Examples of collection methods that alone or combined meet the convenience requirements of this section include a system: (1) By which the manufacturer or the manufacturer's designee offers the consumer an option for returning equipment by mail at no charge to the consumer; (2) Using a physical collection site that the manufacturer or the manufacturer's designee keeps open and staffed and to which the consumer may return equipment; and (3) Using a collection event held by the manufacturer or the manufacturer's designee at which the consumer may return equipment. 5. Collection services under this section may use existing collection and consolidation infrastructure for handling equipment and may include systems jointly managed by a group of manufacturers, electronic recyclers and repair shops, recyclers of other commodities, reuse organizations, not-for-profit corporations, retailers, recyclers, and other suitable operations. If a manufacturer or its designee offers a mail-back system as described in subsection 4 of this section, either individually or by working together with a group of manufacturers or by working with others, it shall be deemed to meet the convenience requirements of this section. 6. The recovery plan shall include information for the consumer on how and where to return the manufacturer's equipment. The manufacturer: (1) Shall include collection, recycling, and reuse information on the manufacturer's publicly available internet site; (2) Shall provide collection, recycling, and reuse information to the department; and (3) May include collection, recycling, and reuse information in the packaging for or in other materials that accompany the manufacturer's equipment when the equipment is sold. 7. Information about collection, recycling, and reuse on a manufacturer's publicly available internet site does not constitute a determination by the department that the manufacturer's recovery plan or actual practices are in compliance with sections 260.1050 to 260.1101 or other state or federal law. 8. Each manufacturer shall submit a report to the department not later than January thirty-first of each year that includes: (1) The weight of equipment collected, recycled, and reused during the preceding calendar year; and (2) Documentation certifying that the collection, recycling, and reuse of equipment during the preceding calendar year was conducted in a manner that complies with section 260.1089 regarding sound environmental management. 9. If more than one person is a manufacturer of a certain brand of equipment as defined by section 260.1053, any of those persons may assume responsibility for and satisfy the obligations of a manufacturer under sections 260.1050 to 260.1101 for that brand. If none of those persons assumes responsibility or satisfies the obligations of a manufacturer for the equipment of that brand, the department may consider any of those persons to be the responsible manufacturer for purposes of sections 260.1050 to 260.1101. 10. The obligations under sections 260.1050 to 260.1101 of a manufacturer who manufactures or manufactured equipment, or sells or sold equipment manufactured by others, under a brand that was previously used by a different person in the manufacture of the equipment extends to all equipment bearing that brand regardless of its date of manufacture. (L. 2008 S.B. 720) *Contingent expiration date, see § 260.1092