Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to amend and pass a bill that repeals regulations on certain recycling practices to attract "advanced recycling" facilities.

Highlights:

• Defines “advanced recycling” as manufacturing processes that convert post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks into basic hydrocarbon raw materials, feedstocks, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, and other products through the following processes, including (Sec. 1):

• Pyrolysis;

• Gasification;

• Depolymerization;

• Solvolysis;

• Catalytic cracking;

• Reforming;

• Hydrogenation; or

• Other similar technologies.

• Defines “depolymerization” as a manufacturing process at an advanced recycling facility where post-use polymers are broken into similar molecules such as monomers and oligomers or raw, intermediate, or final products, plastics, and chemical feedstocks, basic and unfinished chemicals, crude oil, naphtha, liquid transportation fuels, waxes, lubricants, coatings, and other basic hydrocarbon (Sec. 1).

• Defines “gasification” as a manufacturing process at an advanced recycling facility through which recovered feedstocks are heated and converted into a fuel-gas mixture in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere and the mixture is converted to crude oil, diesel, gasoline, home heating oil or other fuels, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, chemical feedstocks, diesel and gasoline blendstocks, or other raw materials or intermediate or final products that are returned to the economic mainstream in the form of raw materials, products, or fuels (Sec. 1).

• Defines “pyrolysis” means a manufacturing process at an advanced recycling facility through which post-use polymers or recovered feedstock are heated in the absence of oxygen until melted and thermally decomposed and are then cooled, condensed, and converted to crude oil, diesel, gasoline, home heating oil or other fuels, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, chemical feedstocks, diesel and gasoline blendstocks, or other raw materials or intermediate or final products that are returned to the economic mainstream in the form of raw materials, products, or fuels (Sec. 1).

• Defines “solvolysis” as a manufacturing process at an advanced recycling facility through which post-use plastics are reacted with the aid of solvents while heated at low temperatures or pressurized to make useful products, while allowing additives and contaminants to be separated. The products of solvolysis include, but are not limited to, monomers, intermediates, and valuable raw materials. The process includes, but is not limited to, hydrolysis, aminolysis, ammonolysis, methanolysis, ethanolysis, and glycolysis (Sec. 1).

• Defines “advanced recycling facility” as a manufacturing facility that receives, separates, stores, and converts the post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks it receives using advanced recycling. An advanced recycling facility is not a solid waste processing facility, solid waste management facility, materials recovery facility, waste-to-energy facility, or incinerator, but the facility is subject to department inspections to ensure compliance (Sec. 1).

• Defines “post-use polymer” as any plastic polymer that is not solid waste when the following apply, including (Sec. 1):

• It is derived from any industrial, commercial, agricultural, or domestic activities;

• Its used or intended to be used to manufacture crude oil, fuels, feedstocks, blendstocks, raw materials, or other intermediate products;

• It may contain incidental contaminants or impurities such as paper labels or metal rings; and

• Is processed as an advanced recycling facility or held at an advanced recycling facility prior to processing.

• Defines “financial responsibility” as a mechanism designed to demonstrate that sufficient funds will be available to meet specific environmental protection needs of solid waste management facilities and advanced recycling facilities (Sec. 2).

• Requires an advanced recycling facility to demonstrate financial responsibility by establishing a cash trust fund prior to being issued a permit to be placed in operation (Sec. 3).

• Requires the Department of Health and Environmental Control to issue a report to the General Assembly before the second anniversary of this bills passage that includes the department’s analysis of the advanced recycling facility industry and its recommendations for the following, including, but not limited to (Sec. 3):

• The costs of cleanup;

• Environmental remediation;

• Firefighting, groundwater or surface water contamination;

• Private property contamination; and

• Public health impacts.

Full Bill Text