R2v3 Certified Facilities in Illinois

The Consumer Electronics Recycling Act — 415 ILCS 151, signed 25 August 2017 as Public Act 100-433 and operative from program year 2019 — replaced the earlier Electronic Products Recycling and Reuse Act. Public Act 104-0274 amended it effective 1 January 2026, and the Act is now scheduled to be repealed 31 December 2031, an extension from the 31 December 2026 the sections previously carried.

What that Act changed is worth being exact about, because it is widely reported loosely. It raised the covered-device categories from eight to nine, added home audio component and peripheral to the definition of a covered electronic device, and replaced residential CEDs with CEDs from covered entities throughout. It did not add small-scale servers — those have been in the statute since 2017 — and it did not add tablets, which were already defined. Its enrolled text lists the sections it changed, and §1-83, the landfill ban, is not among them.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151, Consumer Electronics Recycling Act · 415 ILCS 151/1-5 · Public Act 104-0274

The ban applies to you

415 ILCS 151/1-83 prohibits four separate acts, each phrased “no person may knowingly cause or allow”: mixing a covered device with municipal waste bound for landfill; disposing of one in a sanitary landfill; mixing one with waste bound for incineration; and burning or incinerating one. The operative phrase for a business is “or any other” — the ban reaches a CED, or any other computer, computer monitor, printer, television, electronic keyboard, facsimile machine, videocassette recorder, portable digital music player, digital video disc player, video game console, electronic mouse, scanner, digital converter box, cable receiver, satellite receiver, digital video disc recorder, or small-scale server.

Because the ban lists device types independently of the defined term, it reaches equipment taken out of service from a commercial setting. Illinois EPA confirms it, answering the question directly: “Yes. The landfill ban applies to households, businesses, schools, and government agencies.” Section 1-83 has not been amended since it was enacted in 2017, so that reach is not new.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-83 · Illinois EPA, Electronics Recycling FAQs

But read what the statute means by a server

This is where the plain-English reading and the statutory one come apart, and it runs against the reading a data-centre operator would want. 415 ILCS 151/1-5 defines a small-scale server as a computer that typically uses desktop components in a desktop form designed primarily to serve as a storage host for other computers — required to be built in a pedestal, tower or other form similar to a desktop so that all processing, storage and network interfacing is contained within one box, and designed for an industry-accepted operating system for home or low-end server applications. Rack-mounted equipment, blade chassis, storage arrays and switches are not that.

So the enumerated list reaches a business's desktops, notebooks, monitors, printers and desktop-form servers squarely, and does not obviously reach the contents of a rack. That is a narrower ban than the phrase “small-scale server” suggests, and we would rather say so than let the word server carry weight the definition does not give it. It changes nothing about the hazardous waste rules, which are federal and reach the rack regardless.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-5

And you are excluded from the program

The definition of covered electronic device at 415 ILCS 151/1-5 excludes, in full, “an electronic device that is functionally or physically part of a larger piece of equipment or that is taken out of service from an industrial, commercial (including retail), library checkout, traffic control, kiosk, security (other than household security), governmental, agricultural, or medical setting, including but not limited to diagnostic, monitoring, or control equipment.” Two limbs, and the first one — part of a larger piece of equipment — does work of its own quite apart from where the device was used. And covered entity means a residence, for program years 2019 through 2026.

So the prohibition binds you, the manufacturer-funded collection infrastructure does not serve you, and the state's collection sites are configured for residential drop-off. All obligation, no benefit — the clearest example in any state of a law written for a household and applied to a business.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-5

One thing that changes in 2027

Public Act 104-0274 redefines covered entity from program year 2027 to mean a person delivering 7 or fewer CEDs to a program collection site or collection event, rather than a residence. A small business dropping off a handful of devices would fall inside the funded program for the first time. Anyone retiring at volume stays outside it — the threshold is seven devices, and it is counted at the drop-off.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-5 · Public Act 104-0274

Two effective dates, and what reconciles them

Illinois EPA's FAQ states that “Effective January 1, 2026 all of the covered electronic devices listed below are banned from landfills.” Every subsection of 415 ILCS 151/1-83 says instead “Beginning January 1, 2019.” Both are describing the landfill ban, and the gap is seven years. Reading Public Act 104-0274 in its marked-up form resolves it, and in a way that matters to a business rather than a household. That Act did not touch §1-83 at all. What it did, effective 1 January 2026, was widen what the ban catches: it added home audio components and peripherals to the covered-device definition, and — the part nobody reports — it struck the words “and used only in a residence” from the definition of computer.

Until 1 January 2026 a business desktop arguably was not a computer as the Act defined one. From that date it plainly is. So the ban itself has run since 2019, and the agency's 2026 date is the date the ban's reach over ordinary business equipment stopped being arguable. That is our reading of the enrolled text rather than the agency's statement of it, and we give it as a reading. Either way the ban is in force now, and either way it binds you.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-83 · 415 ILCS 151/1-5 · Illinois EPA, Electronics Recycling FAQs · Public Act 104-0274

Penalties, and the classification matters more than the number

415 ILCS 151/1-50(f) makes a knowing violation by anyone other than a residential consumer a petty offense punishable by a fine of $500 — but it reaches only subsections (a), (b), or (c) of Section 1-83. Subsection (d), burning or incinerating a device, is outside it. A residential consumer faces $25, or $50 for a subsequent violation. Behind that sits the general civil penalty at 1-50(a): $7,000 per violation except as otherwise provided in the Act, with the proviso that a penalty for failing to register or pay a fee is double the applicable registration fee. Section 1-50(b) provides that those civil penalties are recovered in a civil action brought in the name of the people by the State's Attorney of the county where the violation occurred or by the Attorney General, and 1-50(c) lets either of them seek an injunction.

One thing to correct, because it is easy to assume otherwise: the $1,000 administrative citation cannot be used against you for landfilling. It is set by 1-50(d), and Section 1-55(a) confines administrative citations to registration violations under Sections 1-30, 1-40 or 1-45, the reporting requirement at 1-10(b)(4), and plan submission under Section 1-25. Those bind manufacturers, recyclers and collectors. The landfill ban is not on that list, so the citation route does not stack onto it.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-50 · 415 ILCS 151/1-55 · 415 ILCS 151/1-83

The exposure the fine understates

$500 is trivial next to California's $70,000 a day, and reading the number alone would be a mistake in three directions. It is a criminal classification rather than a civil one, prosecuted by a State's Attorney or the Attorney General, and it carries disclosure and reputational consequence a civil penalty of the same size would not. Section 1-50(e) provides that the Act's penalties and injunctions are in addition to any provided under any other law, and that nothing in the Act bars a State cause of action under any other law — so the federal hazardous waste exposure sits underneath all of this, untouched.

And 1-50(g) is the provision worth reading twice. A person who knowingly makes a false, fictitious or fraudulent material statement to the Agency, orally or in writing, related to or required by the Act, commits a Class 4 felony — and each such statement or writing is a separate Class 4 felony. A second or subsequent conviction is a Class 3 felony. The landfilling is a petty offense. Misrepresenting it to the Agency is a felony per document.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-50

The inversion worth understanding

415 ILCS 151/1-5 provides that a CED being collected, recycled or processed for reuse is not considered to be hazardous waste, household waste, solid waste, or special waste. That is close to the inverse of California, which classifies e-waste as universal hazardous waste and makes the generating business a handler by default. In Illinois, correctly routing equipment into a recycling channel affirmatively removes it from the waste-classification regime.

But the qualifier — to the extent allowed under federal and State laws and regulations — means the exemption collapses if the material turns out not to be genuinely destined for recycling. Which is the same structural risk as Ohio's by-product exemption, arrived at from the opposite direction. What your vendor actually does with the material determines whether the exemption held.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-5

On the data — and Illinois goes further than most

Both duties sit in the Personal Information Protection Act, 815 ILCS 530. The disposal duty at 815 ILCS 530/40 requires a person to dispose of materials containing personal information in a manner that renders the personal information unreadable, unusable, and undecipherable; for electronic and non-paper media that means destruction or erasure so the information cannot practicably be read or reconstructed. The penalty is not more than $100 for each individual whose information is disposed of in violation, capped at $50,000 for each instance of improper disposal, and it is the Attorney General who imposes it — after notice and an opportunity to be heard, enforceable by a civil action in the circuit court. Financial institutions under 15 U.S.C. 6801 et seq. and persons subject to 15 U.S.C. 1681w are exempt.

The part that matters for chain of custody is 815 ILCS 530/40(c). A person may contract with a third party to dispose of such materials — and that third party must implement and monitor compliance with policies and procedures that prohibit unauthorized access to or acquisition of or use of personal information during the collection, transportation, and disposal of those materials. Illinois extends the standard to the vendor in transit, not merely at the point of destruction. Very few states say that explicitly. And $50,000 is not the outer edge: subsection (e) lets the Attorney General bring an action in the circuit court to remedy a violation, seeking any appropriate relief, in addition to the civil penalty.

Sources: 815 ILCS 530/40

Breach notification

Under 815 ILCS 530/10, notice to the resident is required in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. Illinois sets no fixed outer deadline comparable to Texas's 60 days. The notice must carry the toll-free numbers and addresses for the consumer reporting agencies, the toll-free number, address and website for the Federal Trade Commission, and a statement that the individual can obtain information from those sources about fraud alerts and security freezes — and it must not include the number of Illinois residents affected. Where a single breach requires notifying more than 500 Illinois residents, §530/10(e)(2) adds notice to the Attorney General, describing the nature of the breach, the number of residents affected at the time of notification, and the steps taken or planned. That notice is due no later than when consumers are notified, which is the only hard deadline in the section.

One subsection bears on a vendor relationship rather than on you. §530/10(b) provides that a data collector that maintains or stores, but does not own or license, computerized personal information must notify the owner immediately following discovery of a breach, and must cooperate — including giving the date or approximate date and nature of the breach and the steps it has taken. A recycler holding drives you have not yet had destroyed is exactly that. The duty to tell you runs to them, by statute, and it is worth knowing you are owed it.

Sources: 815 ILCS 530/10

Illinois EPA, at EPA.Recycling@illinois.gov. The agency accepts no electronics itself. Illinois does maintain a statutory recycler registry — 415 ILCS 151/1-40(a) sets a $3,000 annual registration fee due by 1 January, 1-40(b) requires the Agency to publish a list of all registered recyclers, and 1-40(a-5) lets the Agency deny a registration where the recycler or any employee or officer has a history of repeated violations, specified felony convictions, or gross carelessness or incompetence in handling CEDs.

Read the scope of that registry before relying on it. Registration is mandatory under 1-40(c) only to act as a recycler of CEDs from covered entities for a manufacturer's e-waste program, and 1-40(f) says plainly that nothing in the Act prevents a person from acting as a recycler independently of one. 1-30(d) puts the duty to use a registered recycler on manufacturers, and only for CEDs collected at a program collection site or one-day collection event. There is no parallel command directed at a business retiring its own equipment — and a vendor that handles only commercial equipment need not appear on the list at all. Absence from it is not a finding against a vendor.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-30 · 415 ILCS 151/1-40 · Illinois EPA, Electronics Recycling · Illinois EPA, collectors, recyclers and refurbishers

Why the registry is still the best contractual benchmark in any of these states

Illinois' registered-recycler standards are the most demanding of the states covered here, and worth writing into a contract precisely because the statute does not compel them for your equipment. Under 415 ILCS 151/1-40(d) a registered recycler must carry commercial general liability of at least $1,000,000 per occurrence and $1,000,000 aggregate, plus pollution legal liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence for dismantling-only operations or $5,000,000 for recycling operations; complete an annual environmental health and safety audit certified by a competent internal and external auditor; provide adequate assurance, such as bonds or corporate guarantees, covering closure of the facility including cleanup of stockpiled equipment and materials; and conduct dismantling and storage of hazardous CED components indoors and over impervious floors. It must also apply due diligence to the downstream facilities it sends components to, and may not send hazardous waste to non-hazardous landfills or incinerators.

One more is the Illinois analogue of Ohio's speculative-accumulation clock, and it is stricter in shape. 1-40(e) requires a recycler to transport, from each site it uses, not less than 75% of the total weight of covered-entity CEDs present at that site during the preceding calendar year — a denominator of last year's inventory, measured per site rather than per company, with on-site records the Agency may inspect and copy. A stockpile that does not move is the failure mode the provision exists to catch, and it is the same failure mode that puts your name on a clean-up in Ohio.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-40

And two that bear directly on an ITAD buyer

Under 1-40(d)(12) a registered recycler must employ industry-accepted procedures for the destruction or sanitization of data on hard drives and other data storage devices. The statute then names two acceptable sources, and they are alternatives rather than a pair: guidelines contained in “the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Guidelines for Media Sanitation” or those certified by the National Association for Information Destruction. A registered Illinois recycler is therefore already under a statutory data-sanitization duty, satisfiable either way. And under 1-40(d)(13) no registered recycler may employ prison labor, or engage a third party that uses or subcontracts for prison labor, in collection, transportation or recycling.

Two things about that citation. The statute writes the title as Guidelines for Media Sanitation; NIST's own document is Guidelines for Media Sanitization, so a reader searching the statutory name will not find it. And the statute names no revision. NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 1 was withdrawn on 26 September 2025 and superseded by Rev. 2 — a recycler conforming to Rev. 1 today is conforming to a withdrawn document, and the statute does not tell it otherwise. Specify the revision in the contract, because the citation will not do it for you.

Sources: 415 ILCS 151/1-40

A facility can be registered with Illinois EPA without being certified, and certified without being registered. This directory does not currently cross-reference the two, so a listing here is not a statement about Illinois EPA registration either way — check the Agency's list separately.

Sources: Illinois EPA, collectors, recyclers and refurbishers