environmental Strategist, between the lines: At ERMI we point out that every business is impacted by environmental exposures. Your agency could easily experience the exposure listed in the article below.
Most insurance agencies I have visited use fluorescent light bulbs. When those bulbs burn out they are classified as a hazardous waste (they contain mercury) and need to be properly disposed of.
Under Federal law you own your waste from cradle to grave, which means if the company you use to dispose of your fluorescent lights does not manage the disposal of your lights correctly you can be liable to pay additional costs.
How many client’s do you have that use fluorescent light bulbs? Are their waste bulbs being handled properly? As your client’s professional risk manager it’s your job to know.
One way I generated new client’s as a retail insurance agent was to inspect the vendors my clients did business with. Whoever used this light bulb recycling company obviously was working with an insurance agent/s that did not do their job. This article points out a few prospects to call on (city of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Commonwealth Edison)
Sustainability begins with risk management. One risk management option in dealing with your waste fluorescent bulbs is to have a bulb recycling company come to your facility and recycle them onsite. This way you do not generate a waste manifest and your future liability is almost non-existent.
You must know who you are doing business with because I can tell you story after story where a vendor caused an environmental liability for a client because the vendor did not do their job properly. Virtually every client you do business with uses vendors which means virtually every client you do business with needs their professional risk manager to do their job and find out, who they are doing business with?
EPA fines light bulb recycler $743,000
Agency says firm left Riverdale warehouse contaminated with mercury
By Ray Gibson, Tribune reporter
May 6, 2010
Federal officials are seeking a $743,000 fine against a recycling business that left a Riverdale warehouse contaminated with high levels of poisonous mercury from fluorescent light bulbs, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.
The proposed fine against River Shannon Recycling comes after the village of Riverdale shut down the operation in 2008. It had operated without the necessary permits for two years in the village and had thousands of fluorescent light bulbs, some of which were broken, improperly stored in the facility.
In seeking the large fine, the EPA said the warehouse was actually a hazardous waste site and operated without the required permit.
Last month, the Illinois attorney general’s office won an $88,000 judgment against the firm in Cook County Circuit Court for its alleged misuse of two economic development state grants that were supposed to be used to expand the company’s recycling business.
River Shannon owner Laurence Kelly, who has until May 24 to request a formal hearing on the EPA complaint, issued a statement on Thursday but declined to discuss details.
“We look forward to this matter being resolved,” Kelly said. “We are confident we will be vindicated in the end.”
While River Shannon was operating, among its clients were the city of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Commonwealth Edison. The university paid the firm $66,000 until reports about the company’s questionable operation were reported by the Tribune, and then all three clients stopped doing business with the company.
Kelly was convicted in federal court in 1981 for paying bribes to Cook County tax authorities. He served a three-year prison term.
Meanwhile, a federal grand jury has been investigating the firm’s operations, according to sources with knowledge of the probe.
The investigation follows the Tribune reports that the former owner of the warehouse, who is imprisoned on federal fraud charges, said he paid bribes in order to allow the recycling operation to start up.
Lee Anglin, who has pleaded no contest to the fraud charges, said he was questioned at the Metropolitan Correctional Center by FBI agents.