{"operation":"document","citation":"15-0008","title":"Recology San Francisco — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation","source_type":"guidance","agency":"Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration","status":"guidance","official":true,"published_on":"2015-05-08","effective_on":null,"summary":"15-0008 response to Recology San Francisco concerning 171.8, 173.12.","machine_formats":{"json":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-15-0008.json","markdown":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-15-0008.md"},"app_url":"https://regulus.evalyn.ai/document/phmsa-interpretation-15-0008","source_url":"https://www.phmsa.dot.gov/sites/phmsa.dot.gov/files/legacy/interpretations/Interpretation%20Files/2015/150008.pdf","body":"<<<PAGE 1>>>\n\nU.S. Department of Transportation\nPipeline and Hazardous Materials\n1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE\nWashington, DC 20590\nSafety Administration\nMAY 0 8 2015\nMr. Billy Puk\nHHW Collection Facility & Operations Manager\nRecology San Francisco\n501 Tunnel Avenue\nSan Francisco, CA 94134\nReference No. 15-0008\nDear Mr. Puk:\nThis is in response to your January 13, 2015 e-mail requesting clarification of the\nHazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) applicable to the\ncollection, processing, and transportation of batteries of mixed chemistries (alkaline,\nnickel-cadmium, primary and rechargeable lithium batteries). You ask several questions\nrelated to the shipment of lithium batteries and your questions are paraphrased and\nanswered as follows:\nQ1. Does the proper shipping name \"lithium metal batteries\" mean exclusively primary\nand non-rechargeable lithium batteries? If not please provide examples.\nAl.\nFor the purposes of the HMR, the term lithium metal cell or battery as defined by\n§ 171.8 means \"an electrochemical cell or battery utilizing lithium metal or lithium alloys\nas the anode. The lithium content of a lithium metal or lithium alloy cell or battery is\nmeasured when the cell or battery is in an undischarged state. The lithium content of a\nlithium metal or lithium alloy battery is the sum of the grams of lithium content contained\nin the component cells of the battery.\" The determination as to if a battery is a lithium\nmetal battery or a lithium ion battery is based on the chemical makeup of the battery itself\nand cannot be solely determined by knowing if a battery is rechargeable or not. Most\nlithium metal batteries manufactured today are not rechargeable, however rechargeable\nlithium metal battery technology does exist and these batteries are currently manufactured.\nThis office does not provide examples or references to a particular battery model or\nmanufacturer.\nQ2.\nDoes the proper shipping name \"lithium ion batteries\" mean exclusively\nrechargeable lithium batteries? If not please provide examples.\nA2. The term lithium ion cell or battery as defined by § 171.8 means \"a rechargeable\nelectrochemical cell or battery in which the positive and negative electrodes are both\nlithium compounds constructed with no metallic lithium in either electrode. A lithium ion\npolymer cell or battery that uses lithium ion chemistries, as described herein, is regulated as\n\n<<<PAGE 2>>>\n\na lithium ion cell or battery.\" Irrespective of the term rechargeable in the definition above,\nand as mentioned in A1 above, the determination as to if a battery is a lithium metal battery\nor a lithium ion battery is based on the chemical makeup of the battery itself and cannot be\nsolely determined by knowing if a battery is rechargeable or not. Most lithium ion\nbatteries manufactured today are rechargeable, however non-rechargeable lithium ion\nbattery technology does exist and these batteries are currently manufactured. This office\ndoes not provide examples or references to a particular battery model or manufacturer.\nYou further raise several questions as they relate to a previous letter of interpretation issued\nby this office (Ref. No. 09-0289) regarding exceptions applicable to household waste.\nYour questions are paraphrased and answered as follows:\nQ3.\nDo batteries that have been turned in by residents at various battery drop-off points\nthat are further transported to a household hazardous waste collection facility (HHWCF) by\na government contractor qualify for the household waste exceptions provided in\n§ 173.12(g)?\nA3. No. The exceptions in § 173.12(g) do not apply to the transportation of a consolidated\nhousehold hazardous waste shipment from a collection center by a commercial carrier. The\ndefinition of \"Household waste\" in § 171.8 further defines collection centers as \"a central\nlocation where household waste is collected.\" Battery drop-off points are considered\ncollection centers.\nQ4. Do batteries collected from a HHWCF and transported to various battery recycling\nfacilities qualify for the household waste exceptions provided in § 173.12(g)?\nA4. No. The exceptions in § 173.12(g) do not apply to the transportation of a consolidated\nhousehold hazardous waste shipment from a collection center by a commercial carrier. The\ndefinition of \"Household waste\" in § 171.8 further defines collection centers as \"a central\nlocation where household waste is collected.\"\nI trust this information is helpful. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to\ncontact this office.\nSincerely,\nDuane A t\nDuane A. Pfund\nInternational Standards Coordinator\nStandards and Rulemaking Division\n\n<<<PAGE 3>>>\n\nWielb\n173.185(d)\nGoodall, Shante CTR (PHMSA)\nLithium cell and batteruis\nFrom:\n15-0008\nSent:\nBabich, Vincent (PHMSA)\nTo:\nGoodall, Shante CTR (PHMSA)\nWednesday, January 14, 2015 1:07 PM\nSubject:\nCc:\nKelley, Shane (PHMSA); Betts, Charles (PHMSA)\nAttachments:\nFW: lithium metal batteries vs. lithium ion batteries\nlithium metal batteries vs. lithium ion batteries\nShante,\nWill you please log this in as a request for interpretation and assign.\nThanks!\nVince\nSent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 2:44 PM\nFrom: Billy Puk [mailto:cpuk@recology.com]\nTo: Babich, Vincent (PHMSA)\nCc: Kelley, Shane (PHMSA); Betts, Charles (PHMSA)\nSubject: RE: lithium metal batteries vs. lithium ion batteries\nHi Vincent,\nOur company does not ship collected hazardous waste by air, which is prohibited by both state and federal laws. Our\ncompany, Recology San Francisco, (a private entity) and the City and County of San Francisco (a public entity) are in a\npublic-private partnership in running a successful household hazardous waste (HHW) collection program. In one aspect,\nour company is responsible to transport batteries collected from various drop-off points citywide by only San Francisco\nresidents to our Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility (HHWCF). The drop-off points are inside hardware\nstores, pharmacies, etc. set up by the City. The collected batteries at each drop-off point are always in mix batteries\nchemistries such as alkaline, nickel-cadmium(Ni-Cd), primary, rechargeable, etc.\nA correct distinction of lithium metal and lithium ion batteries is really important for both our company and the City to\ndevelop a safe transportation and collection policy to meet such new standard. This distinction would also impact our\npre-transportation operation to sort and package collected lithium batteries directly from the public at our HHWCF\nbefore shipping to our downstream batteries recyclers from our HHWCF. Since our company is a private entity, an\nexemption (49 CFR 171.1(d)(5)) does not apply to us unless the existing interpretation letter dated on February 5, 2010\n(Reference# 09-0289) applies to our current transportation procedure on both:\n1) transporting all batteries collected from various drop-off points by only the residents to our HHWCF and\n2) transporting all batteries collected from our HHWCF to the ultimate recycling facility(ies).\nIn addition, Shane actually pointed out our batteries collector's/recycler's concern on Wednesday, November 5, 2014,\nwhich is shown below in the email chain as well. Here is his quotation:\n\"While the vast majority of lithium metal batteries are not rechargeable, some are, and any cell or battery utilizing\nlithium metal or lithium alloys as the anode is considered a metal battery.\"\n\n<<<PAGE 4>>>\n\nUnder the current proper shipping name, \"UN3090, lithium battery, 9, PG II,\" we can commingle all different lithium\nbattery chemistry types in one UN-rated container for proper disposal/recycling regardless of lithium metal or lithium\nion batteries so long as we follow 49 CFR 173.185(d). Our concern, as confirmed by Shane's comment, is that we need a\npictorial guidance document for ground transportation in order to correctly distinguish any lithium metal battery that is\nactually rechargeable from lithium ion batteries, which is also rechargeable.\nOur HHW program is not related to any batteries manufacturer or distributer. However, we must manage waste\nbatteries shipment at the same standard as the manufacturers and distributers. This rule is a major disconnect for HHW\nprograms to comply with across the US because our programs are collecting and managing a mix type of batteries in\ngeneral. Our technicians do not work on one particular battery chemistry type daily. Moreover, our technician staff do\nnot have any chemistry background and specific educational training to understand each lithium battery chemistry type\n(metal vs. ion) based on the specific terminals. Some label on the batteries contain no end-of-life management\ninformation, foreign language, misleading information (i.e. lithium rechargeable (metal) batteries but not lithium-ion\ntrain our staff to meet such standard.\nchemistry type), etc. Therefore, I have requested a pictorial guidance document for ground transportation to correctly\nTime is still ticking and we are getting closer to the implementation date on Friday, February 6, 2015. Can you kindly\npass my original email dated on Tuesday, October 7, 2014 to your team, which handles the formal letter of\ninterpretation by PHSMA, please? Here are my original questions and attached in this email again:\n1) Does \"lithium-metal batteries\" mean exclusively primary and non-rechargeable lithium batteries? If not, what\nare the examples?\n2) Does \"lithium-ion batteries\" mean exclusively rechargeable lithium batteries? If not, what are the examples?\nCan your team also insert an interpretation on the same letter whether the following scenarios meet the interpretation\nletter published on February 5, 2010 (Reference# 09-0289), please?\n1) Batteries transportation collected from various batteries drop-off points only by the residents (i.e. households)\nto a HHWCF\n2) Batteries transportation collected from a HHWCF to various batteries recycling facilities\nIf there is any specific regulation that our HHW program must follow for the two scenarios above, can you provide the\nreference(s) on the letter, please? Thank you very much.\nSincerely yours,\nBilly Puk\nHHW Collection Facility & Operations Manager\nRecology™ San Francisco (*RIFFE)\nWASTE ZERO (3)\n415-657-4030\n501 Tunnel Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94134\ncpuk@recology.com\n2\n\n<<<PAGE 5>>>\n\nGoodall, Shante CTR (PHMSA)\nFrom:\nSent:\nBilly Puk <cpuk@recology.com>\nTo:\nINFOCNTR (PHMSA)\nTuesday, October 07, 2014 3:40 PM\nSubject:\nlithium metal batteries vs. lithium ion batteries\nTo whom it may concern:\nUnder 79 FR 46036, the \"lithium batteries\" entry was removed from the HazMat Table. I read the definitions for the\nnew replacement entries - \"lithium-metal batteries\" and \"lithium-ion batteries\" in 49 CFR $171.8. I'need to confirm the\nfollowing:\n1) Does \"lithium-metal batteries\" mean exclusively primary and non-rechargeable lithium batteries? If not, what\nare the examples?\n2) Does \"lithium-ion batteries\" mean exclusively rechargeable lithium batteries? If not, what are the examples?\nWe need to train our employee to identify which lithium batteries are supposed to be in our DOT performance package\nlike drum or fiberboard box before we can ship off to a disposal recycler. Please kindly provide me as many picture\nexamples as possible. Thank you very much.\nSincerely yours,\nBilly Puk\nHHW Collection Facility & Operations Manager\nRecology™ San Francisco (*)5#E)\nWASTE ZERO (ABR)\n415-657-4030\n501 Tunnel Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94134\ncpuk@recology.com","truncated":false,"body_characters":11446}