The controversy began in October 1997, when a Penske truck carrying television CRTs to a Zenith assembly plant in Mexico overturned on a stretch of Interstate 35 outside of Austin. The official manifest of the truck did not state that broken CRT assemblies are considered hazardous waste, and subsequently the driver told emergency crews that the waste was not hazardous. Cleanup crews and police then transported over 20 tons of broken CRTs to the TDS landfill in the nearby town of Creedmor.

The primary issue in the trial that followed was whether or not hazardous material can be diluted enough with non-hazardous material to be considered safe for normal disposal. Because the original 20 tons of CRT glass had been mixed with normal waste after being erroneously dumped at the TDS site, Penske maintained that the 1,600 tons of waste that the broken CRTs had been incorporated into should not be considered hazardous. The courts did not agree.

For now, the two sides have agreed on a settlement in which all lawsuits will be withdrawn, and Penske will pay to dispose of the waste stored at the landfill. Within 30 days of the judgment, signed November 20, 2007, Penske will have to move the contents of the 99 containers to an authorized hazardous waste treatment facility. Though the transport company is obligated to pay for the currently undisclosed costs of disposal, Penske will not be forced to pay any fines for the initial mismanagement of the material. Non-hazardous municipal solid waste will be separated from the hazardous CRT glass and tested for contamination before being reintroduced into the landfill.