Associations, Legislation & Regulations

ISRI opens ordering period for SREA Reasonable Care Compliance Program reports

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, has announced that the ordering period for facility reports through ISRI’s Superfund Recycling Equity Act (SREA) Reasonable Care Compliance Program has been opened.

Federal Superfund law, and many states’ laws, can hold scrap processors and brokers who have shipped materials to consumers’ facilities liable for cleanup costs where the initial polluter is bankrupt or otherwise unable to pay these costs. Under SREA, by showing “reasonable care,” recyclers can employ a valid defense to a claim for Superfund liability.

“Superfund liability costs can reach the millions of dollars and put companies out of business if they do not protect themselves,” says ISRI President Robin Wiener. “ISRI put this program together to help ISRI members take the necessary steps to protect everything they have worked so hard to achieve. SREA reports are a quick, easy and low-cost method that help show a company had done its due diligence when shipping recycled materials.”

SREA requires every processor and broker to conduct due diligence before recyclables are shipped to consuming operations, ISRI says. This involves, among other things, making sure consumers’ facilities are in environmental compliance.

Members of ISRI have the benefit of participating in the SREA Reasonable Care Compliance Program to assist with the defense of a Superfund liability claim. ISRI says its SREA program offers its members the opportunity to order reports on consuming facilities that include:

• publicly available, comprehensive environmental compliance information compiled from more than 1,200 federal, state and local databases;
• Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests;
• facility questionnaires; and
• supporting backup data.

The 2017 ordering season for facility reports began April 3 and runs through May 31. Most reports are subsidized for ISRI members and cost $35. Additional pricing information and other details can be found on the SREA Reasonable Care Compliance Program page of the ISRI website at www.isri.org/policy-regulations/superfund-srea#.WOJBiVUrKUn.

More information on SREA is available from Thomas Casey at 202-662-8532 or at ThomasCasey@isri.org.