Premier Associates, Inc. v. EXL Polymers, Inc.

507 F. App'x 831
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedFebruary 5, 2013
Docket12-10325
StatusUnpublished

This text of 507 F. App'x 831 (Premier Associates, Inc. v. EXL Polymers, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Premier Associates, Inc. v. EXL Polymers, Inc., 507 F. App'x 831 (11th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

ALBRITTON, District Judge:

We have had the benefit' of oral argument, and have carefully studied the briefs and relevant parts of the record. We conclude that the judgment of the district court should be affirmed.

Because the relevant facts were set forth in the district court’s Opinion and Order, and discussed fully at oral argument, we need not repeat them all here, but merely summarize those facts.

Appellant Premier Associates,. Inc. (“Premier”) is a real estate holding company which owns property at 25 Mendel Drive in Atlanta, Georgia (“the Mendel site”). In April 2006, Premier entered into a seven-year lease agreement with Nycore, Inc. (“Nycore”). 1 Nycore leased the Mendel site for the purpose of manufacturing building materials , from recycled carpet waste, known as carpet selvedge.

Appellee Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (“Shaw”) is a carpet manufacturer in Dalton, Georgia. In May 2006, Shaw began shipping carpet selvedge to Nycore at the Mendel site for recycling. Shaw had previously shipped carpet selvedge to a predecessor company of Nycore in Minnesota. The carpet selvedge was processed into other products at the Minnesota facility. The carpet selvedge at the Mendel site ultimately was not recycled but instead was stored on site. Shaw stopped shipment of the carpet selvedge when it discovered that the material was not being recycled.

Premier sought to hold Shaw and' other defendants liable for property losses at the Mendel site under - the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”) and related Georgia state- law. The district court granted Shaw’s motion for summary judgment and denied Premier’s. Premier appeals from those rulings.

■We review a district court’s grant or denial of a motion for summary judgment de novo. Harris v. Bd. of Educ. of Atlanta, 105 F.3d 591, 595 (11th Cir.1997). We review all inferences reasonably- drawn from the evidence in a light most favorable to the' nonmovant. Perry v. Sec’y Fla. Dep’t of Corr., 664 F.3d 1359, 1363 (11th Cir.2011).

“The RCRA is a comprehensive environmental statute that establishes a cradle-to-grave system for regulating the disposal of solid and hazardous waste.” Parker v. Scrap Metal Processors, Inc., 386 F.3d *834 993, 1010 (11th Cir.2004). The RCRA allows approved states to implement and enforce its provisions. 42 U.S.C. § 6926(b). In 1979, Georgia received approval and enacted the Hazardous Waste Management Act (“HWMA”), Ga.Code Ann. §§ 12-8-60 through 12-8-83, and the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Act (“SWMA”), Ga.Code Ann. §§ 12-8-20 through 12-8-59.2, to regulate solid and hazardous waste. Parker, 386 F.3d at 1010. The definition of solid waste under Georgia law is as follows:

“Solid waste” means any garbage or refuse; sludge from a waste-water treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility; and other discarded material including solid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and community activities, but does not include recovered materials....

Ga.Code Ann. § 12-8-22(33). As indicated, “recovered materials” are excluded from the definition of “solid waste” under Georgia law. Ga.Code Ann. § 12-8-22(33); see also Parker, 386 F.3d at 1011. “Recovered materials” means those materials which have known use, reuse, or recycling potential; can be feasibly used, reused, or recycled; and have been diverted or removed from the solid waste stream for sale, use, reuse, or recycling, whether or not requiring subsequent separation and processing. Ga.Code Ann. § 12-8-22(25). “Recovered materials” is a term further defined to exclude materials accumulated speculatively. Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 391-3-4-.04(7)(b). To prove that a recovered material is not accumulated speculatively, “the person accumulating it can show that there is a known use, reuse, or recycling potential for the material, that the material can be feasibly sold, used, reused, or recycled and that during the preceding 90 days the amount of material that is recycled, sold, used, or reused equals at least 60 percent by weight or volume of the material received during that 90-day period and 60 percent by weight or volume of all material previously received and not recycled, sold, used, or reused and carried forward into that 90-day period.” Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 391-3-4-.04(7)(c).

Premier contends that under Georgia law, the carpet selvedge in this case is not a recovered material because it does not have a known use, reuse, or recycling potential; could not be feasibly used, reused, or recycled; and was not diverted or removed from the stream of solid waste. Premier also contends that even if the carpet selvedge was properly characterized as a recovered material at some point, Shaw has failed to prove that it was not accumulated speculatively.

With respect to the known use, reuse, or recycling potential of carpet selvedge, there is undisputed expert deposition testimony of Charles MacPherson that carpet selvedge can be processed into other products such as boards, park benches, and fiber linings for coats. Premier contends, however, that Shaw’s carpet selvedge could not be feasibly used, reused, or recycled because the only feasible outcome for Shaw’s carpet waste was that it would remain on Premier’s property to deteriorate.

Premier points to facts that there was never any manufacturing equipment at the Mendel site, that carpet selvedge was not processed there, that Shaw did not know if Nycore manufactured at the site, and that Shaw believed Nycore was temporarily storing carpet at the site. Premier contends that if those facts were viewed in a light most favorable to it, the carpet selvedge recycling was not feasible at the Mendel site.

*835 The record evidence establishes that Shaw began shipping carpet selvedge to Nycore’s predecessor in Minnesota in 2001. The record evidence also indicates that representatives from Shaw visited the Minnesota facility in June of 2002 to tour the facility, and that extruders were being used to process carpet selvedge. Therefore, the undisputed facts show that at the time Shaw began shipping carpet selvedge to the Mendel facility, it and Nycore had a business association pursuant to which carpet selvedge was being processed at a Minnesota recycling facility. The shipments of carpet selvedge to the Mendel site were made for recycling of Shaw’s carpet selvedge at that facility.

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Citizen suits
42 U.S.C. § 6972(a)(1)(B)

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Bluebook (online)
507 F. App'x 831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/premier-associates-inc-v-exl-polymers-inc-ca11-2013.