The Iowa House and Senate passed SF 534 and the Tennessee House and Senate passed SB 923. The American Chemistry Council’s Plastics Division welcomed the legislation and issued the following statement, which may be attributed to Craig Cookson, senior director of recycling and recovery:
“In passing SF 534 and SB 923, Iowa and Tennessee become the most recent states to create a welcoming environment for businesses to convert more post-use, plastics into valuable raw materials, thereby keeping more of our plastic resources out of landfills. 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.
“We’re pleased to see legislation that attracts new businesses and supports job creation by treating post-use plastics as raw materials for ‘manufacturing’ and not as ‘waste.’ In addition, SF 534 and SB 923 make clear that facilities that convert post-use plastics into plastic and chemical feedstocks, crude oil, lower carbon transportation fuels, or other products are correctly regulated as manufacturers and not mischaracterized as solid waste disposal facilities. We applaud Representative Sorenson and Senator Brown in Iowa and Representative Hulsey and Senator Southerland in Tennessee for their leadership in sponsoring such important legislation, and we urge Iowa Governor Reynolds and Tennessee Governor Lee to sign these bills into law.
“A report released earlier this month by the American Chemistry Council found the potential economic impact of expanding advanced plastic recycling and recovering technologies, also called chemical recycling, in the United States to be nearly $10 billion. The passage of legislation in Florida, Wisconsin, Georgia and now Iowa and Tennessee, is helping to support implementation of these innovative technologies. We congratulate these states for their leadership in plastics recycling and recovery, and look forward to additional states taking similar action.
“In Iowa, it’s estimated that converting the state’s post-use plastics into transportation fuel could power 98,000 cars each year. Experts also determined that converting just 25 percent of the post-use plastics in Iowa and neighboring counties into manufacturing feedstocks and transportation fuels could support five advanced recycling and recovery facilities and generate $309 million in economic output annually.
“In Tennessee, it’s estimated that converting the state’s post-use plastics into transportation fuel could power 219,000 cars each year. Experts also determined that converting just 25 percent of the state’s post-use plastics into manufacturing feedstocks and transportation fuels could support eight advanced recycling and recovery facilities and generate $264 million in economic output annually.”
Published in the May 2019 Edition