CRT E-Waste Stockpile Chain-of-Custody Register

PROBLEM: Cathode-ray tube (CRT) glass from old televisions contains several pounds of lead per tube and is a negative-value material that must be managed properly. When Closed Loop Refining and Recovery collapsed in 2016, it left hundreds of millions of pounds of CRT glass stockpiled: three former sites in Columbus, Ohio hold an estimated 159 million pounds with cleanup costs estimated at over $18 million, and two Arizona warehouse sites held 106 million pounds. In Iowa, failed processor Recycletronics abandoned 1.9 million pounds of CRT materials at a rural stockpile in Akron, removed under EPA oversight in 2022 at a cost of more than $1.3 million. EPA posted notice in June 2025 of de minimis settlements with five processors that supplied a combined 6,860 pounds to the Akron site. Suppliers, haulers and failed processors each hold part of the chain of custody — and when the downstream outlet collapses, nobody's record shows where the glass went.

SOLUTION: An IBM Cloud Ideas compliance improvement that maintains a CRT e-waste stockpile chain-of-custody register: each shipment of CRT material is logged from supplier through hauler to downstream processor with weights, destination and downstream disposition, and any shipment to a processor with no verified downstream outlet — or any stockpile growing without outbound movement — is flagged before the material is abandoned.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — EPA notice of proposed de minimis settlement agreement (posted end of June 2025, comments through July 28, 2025): five processors settled over 6,860 pounds of CRT materials at the Recycletronics Akron, Iowa stockpile; 1.9 million pounds abandoned, removed under EPA oversight in 2022 at a cost of more than $1.3 million. REPORTED — Resource Recycling (court filings and EPA records): Closed Loop collapse 2016; about 159 million pounds at three Columbus, Ohio sites, cleanup estimated over $18 million; 106 million pounds at Arizona sites; $10.8 million recovered in Arizona settlements as of June 2024.