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Response to Alleged Hazardous Waste Violation #102 Office Depot Store 6298, Stockton, CA September 9, 2020 Office Depot disagrees that certain of the inspector's observations at the store on August 10, 2020 as outlined in the August 10, 2020 inspection report constitute a violation of failure to determine if a waste is a hazardous waste. Specifically, we respectfully disagree with the conclusions regarding alleged violation #102. We hope that by explaining our processes,you will agree: 1. The customer returned non-empty Epson ink cartridge observed in a basket labeled "Damaged & Defective" was not and is not waste, and thus, not hazardous waste. It was not inherently waste-like and was being managed for return to the vendor(manufacturer)for credit. While the term "Damaged & Defective" is unfortunate when viewed with a RCRA mindset, it does not mean the items so labeled have been discarded or deemed waste. The term "Damaged & Defective" is retail industry jargon (albeit varying from retailer to retailer) referring to an inventory management processes, specifically removing an item of merchandise from the inventory records when the item will be sent back for vendor credit. Some retailers refer to this as a return to vender(RTV) or vendor credit process. Most commonly, ink and toner cartridges in "D+D" are customer returns with nothing wrong with them other than perhaps an open package; they just cannot be returned to the shelf. Ink and toner cartridges (both empty and non-empty) are high value because they can be easily refurbished by refilling, repackaging and relabeling. In Office Depot's process,the cartridges are refurbished and repackaged into manufacturer branding or Office Depot branding for resale. The process is detailed in the attached documents. In general,the process is: a. Stores ship back D+D items to its Distribution Center(DC) [for the Stockton stores,this is the Office Depot DC in Fremont CA]. The items are shipped under a Bill of Lading, and an itemized record of D+D items is maintained. Both of these facts speak to the value of the items in the D+D RTV process;that is,they are being tracked and managed as products of value—not waste. b. The DC consolidates the D+D containers on to pallets. When there are enough pallets for a shipment, OD transports them to Inmar's Fullerton, CA Return Center(RC). c. Inmar scans and evaluates each individual item, sorting them based on instructions most commonly from the vendor (manufacturer)—usually specific to the particular retailer-vendor agreement. In the case of the ink and toner cartridges,they are either returned to the manufacturer for refurbishment(refilling, repackaging and relabeling) or recycling, or to a third-party processor (Clover Technologies)for refurbishment or recycling. The determination of whether the item can be refurbished is made by the manufacturer or the third-party processor. In either case,the highest, best and most value-retaining use is refurbishment. 2. Regarding the inspector's observation from her interview with Amy Bradford,the store manager, regarding excess (not "waste")toner from the Xerox printer in the store's Copy Center,the toner is managed in a Xerox recycling program along with the used Xerox toner cartridges. The attached "XEROX Used Cartridge and Excess Toner Return Program SOP" provides screen shots from Office Depot (OD) SOP on packaging for shipment of the Xerox toner cartridges back to XEROX. It is a UPS ship-back program. The store manager either misspoke when she said they ship the Xerox cartridges and excess toner by backhaul to the OD DC, or if that is what they may have done,then the DC would have forwarded the items to Xerox. Going 1