Bill Text: TX HB1953 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Relating to the conversion of plastics and other recoverable materials through pyrolysis or gasification.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-05-17 - Effective immediately [HB1953 Detail]

Download: Texas-2019-HB1953-Introduced.html

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By: Thompson of Brazoria H.B. No. 1953

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to relating to reducing the volume of wastes disposed of in
landfills by promoting the beneficial conversion of plastics and
other recoverable materials using pyrolysis and gasification
processes.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 361.003, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by amending Subsection (35) and adding Subsections (40)
through (45) to read as follows:
(35) This subdivision is effective on delegation of
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act authority to the
Railroad Commission of Texas. Subject to the limitations of 42
U.S.C. Section 6903(27) and 40 C.F.R. Section 261.4(a), "solid
waste" means garbage, rubbish, refuse, sludge from a waste
treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution
control facility, and other discarded material, including solid,
liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from
industrial, municipal, commercial, mining, and agricultural
operations and from community and institutional activities. The
term:
(A) does not include:
(i) solid or dissolved material in domestic
sewage, or solid or dissolved material in irrigation return flows,
or industrial discharges subject to regulation by permit issued
under Chapter 26, Water Code;
(ii) soil, dirt, rock, sand, and other
natural or man-made inert solid materials used to fill land if the
object of the fill is to make the land suitable for the construction
of surface improvements; or
(iii) waste materials that result from
activities associated with the exploration, development, or
production of oil or gas or geothermal resources and other
substance or material regulated by the Railroad Commission of Texas
under Section 91.101, Natural Resources Code; and
(B) does include hazardous substances, for the
purposes of Sections 361.271 through 361.277, 361.280, and 361.343
through 361.345.; or
(iv) post-use polymers or recoverable
feedstocks processed through pyrolysis or gasification.
(40) "Gasification" means 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 plastic, 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. Gasification shall not
be considered "processing" or "incineration."
(41) "Gasification facility" means a facility that
receives, separates, stores and converts post-use polymers and
recoverable feedstocks using gasification. The commission may not
consider a gasification facility to be a "solid waste facility,"
"solid waste management facility" or "incinerator."
(42) "Recoverable feedstocks" means 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:
(a) Post-use polymers;
(b) 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
under 40 CFR 241.3(c) or otherwise determined are not waste or for
which the Board has made a non-waste determination. Recoverable
feedstocks do not include coal refuse.
(43) "Post-use polymers" means plastic polymers that
derive from any household, industrial, community, commercial or
other sources of operations or activities which might otherwise
become a waste if not converted into valuable raw, intermediate and
final products including, but not limited to plastic, 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.
Post-use polymers as defined in this Section may contain incidental
contaminants or impurities such as paper labels or metal rings.
Post-use polymers are not mixed with solid waste, medical waste,
hazardous waste, e-waste, tires or construction demolition debris.
Post-use polymers as described in this Section are not "solid
wastes."
(44) "Pyrolysis" means a manufacturing process
through which post-use polymers are heated in the absence of oxygen
until melted, and thermally decomposed, and are then cooled,
condensed and converted into valuable raw, intermediate and final
products including, but not limited to plastic, 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.
Pyrolysis shall not be considered "processing" or "incineration."
(45) "Pyrolysis facility" means a manufacturing
facility that receives, separates, stores and converts post-use
polymers using pyrolysis. The commission may not consider a
pyrolysis facility to be a "solid waste facility," "solid waste
management facility" or "incinerator."
SECTION 2. Subchapter B, Chapter 361, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Subsection 361.045 to read as follows:
Sec. 361.045. TREATMENT OF POST-USE POLYMER AND RECOVERABLE
FEEDSTOCKS AS SOLID WASTE. The commission may not consider
post-use polymers and recoverable feedstocks as solid waste if they
are converted using pyrolysis or gasification into valuable raw,
intermediate and final products including, but not limited to
plastic, 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.
SECTION 3. Section 361.119, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by adding a new Subsection (d) and renumbering Subsections
(d), (e), and (f) to read as follows:
Sec. 361.119. REGULATION OF CERTAIN FACILITIES AS SOLID
WASTE FACILITIES.
(d) A facility that reuses or converts recyclable
materials, including post-use polymers and recoverable feedstocks,
in a pyrolysis or gasification process, and the operations
conducted and materials handled at the facility, are not subject to
regulation under rules adopted under this section if the owner or
operator of the facility demonstrates that:
(1) the primary function of the facility is to convert
materials that have a resale value greater than the cost of
converting the materials for subsequent beneficial use; and
(2) all the solid waste generated from converting the
materials is disposed of in a solid waste facility authorized under
this chapter, with the exception of small amounts of solid waste
that may be inadvertently and unintentionally disposed of in
another manner.
(d) (e) A facility that is owned, operated, or affiliated
with a person that has a permit to dispose of municipal solid waste
is not subject to regulation or requirements for financial
assurance under rules adopted under this section.
(e) (f) A solid waste processing facility that is owned or
operated by a local government is not subject to rules adopted under
this section.
(f) (g) The commission shall adopt rules to ensure that the
owner or operator of a recycling facility, including a composting
or mulching facility, has in place sufficient financial assurance
conditioned on satisfactorily operating and closing the facility
and consistent with the requirements of Section 361.085 for a solid
waste facility other than a facility for the disposal of hazardous
waste. This subsection applies only to an owner or operator of a
recycling facility:
(1) at which combustible material is stored outdoors;
or
(2) that poses a significant risk to public health and
safety as determined by the commission.
SECTION 4. Section 361.421, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by amending Subsections (5), (6) and (8) to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER N. WASTE REDUCTION PROGRAMS; DISPOSAL FEES
Sec. 361.421. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(5) "Recyclable material" means material that has been
recovered or diverted from the solid waste stream for purposes of
reuse, recycling, or reclamation, a substantial portion of which is
consistently used in the manufacture of products which may
otherwise be produced using raw or virgin materials. Recyclable
material is not solid waste unless the material is deemed to be
hazardous solid waste by the Administrator of the United States
Environmental Protection Agency, whereupon it shall be regulated
accordingly unless it is otherwise exempted in whole or in part from
regulation under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended
by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C.
Section 6901 et seq.), by Environmental Protection Agency
regulation. However, recyclable material may become solid waste at
such time, if any, as it is abandoned or disposed of rather than
recycled, whereupon it will be solid waste with respect only to the
party actually abandoning or disposing of the material. For
purposes of this subchapter, the term includes post-use polymers
and recoverable feedstocks provided the materials are converted
using pyrolysis or gasification into valuable raw, intermediate and
final products including, but not limited to plastic, 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.
(6) "Recycled material" means materials, goods, or
products that consist of recyclable material or materials derived
from postconsumer waste, industrial waste, or hazardous waste which
may be used in place of a raw or virgin material in manufacturing a
new product. When used in a pyrolysis or gasification process, the
term "recycled materials" includes post-use polymers and
recoverable feedstocks.
(8) "Recycling" means a process by which materials
that have served their intended use or are scrapped, discarded,
used, surplus, or obsolete are collected, separated, or processed
and returned to use in the form of raw materials in the production
of new products. Recycling includes:
(A) the composting process if the compost
material is put to beneficial reuse as defined by the commission;
and
(B) the application to land, as organic
fertilizer, of processed sludge or biosolids from municipal
wastewater treatment plants and other organic matter resulting from
poultry, dairy, livestock, or other agricultural operations.; and
(C) the conversion of post-use polymers and
recoverable feedstocks using a pyrolysis or gasification process.
SECTION 5. Subchapter N, Chapter 361, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Subsection 361.430 to read as follows:
Sec. 361.430. ALTERNATIVES AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES.
(a) In developing and implementing the state solid waste
management strategies and plans, the commission and the controller
shall utilize the pollution prevention advisory committee as set
out in Section 361.0215 of the Health and Safety Code to promote
Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) and the development and use
of pyrolysis and gasification processes to divert recoverable
polymers and other materials away from landfills and toward
conversion into valuable raw, intermediate and final products
including, but not limited to plastic, 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, by reducing unnecessary
and inappropriate barriers to the siting, permitting and operation
of facilities utilizing such technologies.
(b) Definitions. In this Subsection:
(1) Engineered Fuel. The term "engineered fuel"
means a solid fuel that is manufactured from recoverable
constituents of municipal solid waste or other secondary materials.
(2) Feedstock. The term "feedstock" means raw
material that is used in a machine or industrial process."
(3) Sustainable Materials Management. The term
"sustainable materials management" means a systematic approach to
using and reusing materials more productively over their entire
life cycle, taking into account life-cycle cost benefit analysis
considerations.
(c) Study. With respect to post-use polymers and
recoverable feedstocks that are often deposited in landfills, the
commission shall conduct a study to: (a) evaluate recycling and
recovery based on the energy and water savings and greenhouse gas
reductions achieved by improving material recovery from the solid
waste stream, including by measuring certain environmental
benefits of waste prevention; and (b) determine the manner in which
the State and local government officials can promote and make
progress toward sustainable materials management and a
cost-effective system (including with respect to environmental
issues), through the use of pyrolysis, gasification, and other
innovative technologies such as engineered fuels, to convert
post-use polymers, alone or in combination with other recoverable
feedstocks, into materials that can be used as plastic, monomers,
chemicals and chemical feedstocks or to generate energy or fuels.
(d) Completion of Study. Not later than 2 years after the
date of enactment of this Act, the commission and controller shall
complete the study described in subsection (c) and submit to the
Governor and General Assembly a report providing findings and
recommendations developed through the study."
SECTION 6. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect ________________
.