Iowa, Tennessee Pass Bills Supporting Advanced Plastics Recycling

Iowa and Tennessee have just passed bills supporting advanced recycling facilities that convert plastic waste into raw material via chemical recycling, which includes pyrolysis and depolymerization.

Recycling Today reports that in Iowa, converting 25 percent of the state's post-consumer plastics into feedstocks and transportation fuels could support five advanced recycling and recovery facilities and generate $309 million in economic output annually. And in Tennessee, converting 25 percent of the state’s post-consumer plastics into manufacturing feedstock and transportation fuels could support eight advanced recycling and recovery facilities and generate $264 million in economic output per year.

A report released by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) in March revealed the potential economic impact of expanding advanced plastic recycling and recovery technologies in the United States to be nearly $10 billion. ACC examined a burgeoning class of technologies that convert used plastics into a range of products and raw materials such as chemicals and chemical feedstocks for new plastics, lower carbon transportation fuels and other petroleum-based commodities.

Recycling Today has more details:

The Iowa House and Senate passed Senate File 534 and the Tennessee House and Senate passed Senate Bill 0923 in support of advanced recycling facilities that convert plastic scrap into raw material using pyrolysis or chemical recycling.

“In passing SF 534 and SB 0923, Iowa and Tennessee become the most recent states to create a welcoming environment for businesses to convert more post-consumer plastics into valuable raw materials, keeping more of our plastic resources out of landfills,” states Craig Cookson, senior director of recycling and recovery, The American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division. “Iowa and Tennessee join Florida, Wisconsin and Georgia in passing such legislation, reinforcing states’ growing recognition of the economic and environmental benefits of reusing our plastic resources.”

The legislation defines pyrolysis—a process that converts post-consumer polymers into fuels, chemical feedstock, waxes or resin pellets—and pyrolysis facilities as being separate from solid waste disposal facilities.

Read the full article here.