Signed by Governor Bill Lee

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that authorizes the recycling of plastic using pyrolysis.

Highlights:

• Amends Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 68-211-103(8)(B) to include post-use polymers or recoverable feedstocks processed through pyrolysis or gasification (Sec. 2).

• Defines “pyrolysis” as a manufacturing process through which post-use polymers are heated in the absence of oxygen until melted and thermally decomposed, and then cooled, condensed, and converted into valuable raw, intermediate, and final products including, but not limited to, monomers, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, chemical feedstocks, crude oil, diesel, gasoline, diesel and gasoline blendstocks, home heating oil, and other fuels including ethanol and transportation fuel (Sec. 1).

• Defines “recoverable feedstock” as one or more of the following materials, derived from recoverable waste, that has been processed so that it may be used as feedstock in a gasification facility (Sec. 1):

• Post-use polymers; or

• Materials, including, but not limited to, municipal solid waste, that contains post-use polymers and other post-industrial waste containing post-use polymers, that has been processed into a fuel or feedstock for which the federal Environmental Protection Agency has made a non-waste determination or otherwise determined are not waste or for which the department or board has made a non-waste determination.

• Specifies that pyrolysis is not considered “incineration” or solid waste “processing” (Sec. 1).

• Defines “gasification” as a process through which recoverable feedstocks are heated and converted into a fuel-gas mixture in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere and the mixture is converted into valuable raw, intermediate, and final products including, but not limited to (Sec. 1):

• Monomers;

• Chemicals;

• Waxers;

• Lubricants;

• Chemical feedstocks;

• Crude oil;

• Diesel;

• Gasoline;

• Diesel and gasoline blendstocks;

• Home heating oil; and

• Other fuels including ethanol and transportation fuel.

• Defines “gasification facility” as a facility that receives, separates, stores, and converts post-use polymers and recoverable feedstocks using gasification (Sec. 1).

• Defines “post-use polymer” as a plastic polymer that derives from any community, domestic, institutional, industrial, commercial, or other source of operations or activities which might otherwise become a waste if not converted to manufacture valuable raw, intermediate, and final products using pyrolysis or gasification (Sec. 1).

• Defines “pyrolysis facility” as a manufacturing facility that receives, separates, stores, and converts post-use polymers using pyrolysis (Sec. 1).

• Defines “solid waste processing” as any process that modifies the characteristics or properties of solid waste, includinge, but not limited to; treatment incineration, composting, separation, grinding, shredding, and volume reduction (Sec. 3).

Full Bill Text