Bill Text: TX SB1656 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Introduced

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

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-03-27 - Left pending in committee [SB1656 Detail]

Download: Texas-2019-SB1656-Introduced.html

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86R12012 JAM-F
By: Hancock S.B. No. 1656

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the conversion of plastics and other recoverable
materials through pyrolysis or gasification.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 361.003, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by amending Subdivisions (25), (34), (35), and (36) and
adding Subdivisions (10-a), (10-b), (24-a), (25-a), (25-b), and
(26-a) to read as follows:
(10-a) "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 a valuable raw, intermediate, or final product
including a plastic, monomer, chemical, wax, lubricant, chemical
feedstock, crude oil, diesel, gasoline, diesel and gasoline
blendstock, home heating oil, ethanol, or another fuel. The term
does not include incineration.
(10-b) "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 management
facility or an incinerator.
(24-a) "Post-use polymers" means plastic polymers
that derive from any household, industrial, community, commercial,
or other sources of operations or activities that might otherwise
become waste if not converted into a valuable raw, intermediate, or
final product. Post-use polymers include used polymers that
contain incidental contaminants or impurities such as paper labels
or metal rings but do not include used polymers mixed with solid
waste, medical waste, hazardous waste, tires, or construction or
demolition debris.
(25) "Processing" means the extraction of materials
from or the transfer, volume reduction, conversion to energy, or
other separation and preparation of solid waste for reuse or
disposal. The term includes the treatment or neutralization of
hazardous waste designed to change the physical, chemical, or
biological character or composition of a hazardous waste so as to
neutralize the waste, recover energy or material from the waste,
render the waste nonhazardous or less hazardous, make it safer to
transport, store, or dispose of, or render it amenable for recovery
or storage, or reduce its volume. The term does not include:
(A) gasification or pyrolysis; or
(B) activities concerning those materials
exempted by the administrator of the United States Environmental
Protection Agency under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as
amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as
amended (42 U.S.C. Section 6901 et seq.), unless the commission
determines that regulation of the activity under this chapter is
necessary to protect human health or the environment.
(25-a) "Pyrolysis" means a manufacturing process
through which post-use polymers are heated in an oxygen-deficient
atmosphere until melted and thermally decomposed, and are then
cooled, condensed, and converted into a valuable raw, intermediate,
or final product including a plastic, monomer, chemical, wax,
lubricant, chemical feedstock, crude oil, diesel, gasoline, diesel
and gasoline blendstock, home heating oil, ethanol, or another
fuel. The term does not include incineration.
(25-b) "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 management facility or an
incinerator.
(26-a) "Recoverable feedstock" means one or more of
the following materials, derived from recoverable waste, other than
coal refuse, that has been processed so that it may be used as
feedstock in a gasification facility:
(A) post-use polymers; and
(B) material, including municipal solid waste
containing post-use polymers and other post-industrial waste
containing post-use polymers, that has been processed into a fuel
or feedstock for which the United States Environmental Protection
Agency has made a non-waste determination under 40 C.F.R. Section
241.3(c).
(34) This subdivision expires 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, unless the waste,
substance, or material results from activities associated with
gasoline plants, natural gas or natural gas liquids processing
plants, pressure maintenance plants, or repressurizing plants and
is hazardous waste as defined by the administrator of the United
States Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Solid
Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. Section 6901 et seq.); or
(iv) post-use polymers or recoverable
feedstocks processed through pyrolysis or gasification; and
(B) does include hazardous substances, for the
purposes of Sections 361.271 through 361.277[, 361.280,] and
361.343 through 361.345.
(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; or
(iv) post-use polymers or recoverable
feedstocks processed through pyrolysis or gasification; and
(B) does include hazardous substances, for the
purposes of Sections 361.271 through 361.277[, 361.280,] and
361.343 through 361.345.
(36) "Solid waste facility" means all contiguous land,
including structures, appurtenances, and other improvements on the
land, used for processing, storing, or disposing of solid waste.
The term includes a publicly or privately owned solid waste
facility consisting of several processing, storage, or disposal
operational units such as one or more landfills, surface
impoundments, or a combination of units. The term does not include
a pyrolysis or gasification facility.
SECTION 2. Subchapter B, Chapter 361, Health and Safety
Code, is amended by adding Section 361.041 to read as follows:
Sec. 361.041. TREATMENT OF POST-USE POLYMERS AND
RECOVERABLE FEEDSTOCKS AS SOLID WASTE. The commission may not
consider post-use polymers or recoverable feedstock to be solid
waste if they are converted using pyrolysis or gasification into a
valuable raw, intermediate, or final product including a plastic,
monomer, chemical, wax, lubricant, chemical feedstock, crude oil,
diesel, gasoline, diesel and gasoline blendstock, home heating oil,
ethanol, or another fuel.
SECTION 3. Section 361.119, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by adding Subsection (c-1) to read as follows:
(c-1) A facility that reuses or converts recyclable
materials through pyrolysis or gasification, 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.
SECTION 4. Sections 361.421(5), (6), and (8), Health and
Safety Code, are amended to read as follows:
(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. The term
includes post-use polymers and recoverable feedstocks that are
converted through pyrolysis or gasification into valuable raw,
intermediate, and final products. 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.
(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. The term includes post-use polymers and recoverable
feedstocks used in pyrolysis or gasification.
(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 through pyrolysis or gasification.
SECTION 5. (a) In this section:
(1) "Advisory committee" means the pollution
prevention advisory committee established under Section 361.0215,
Health and Safety Code.
(2) "Commission" means the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality.
(3) "Engineered fuel" means a solid fuel that is
manufactured from recoverable constituents of municipal solid
waste or other secondary materials.
(4) "Feedstock" means raw material that is used in a
machine or industrial process.
(5) "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.
(b) To further develop and implement the state solid waste
management strategies and plans, the commission and the comptroller
of public accounts, in coordination with the advisory committee,
shall conduct a study to promote sustainable materials management
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 plastic, monomers, chemicals, waxes,
lubricants, chemical feedstocks, crude oil, diesel, gasoline,
diesel and gasoline blendstocks, home heating oil, ethanol, and
other fuels, by reducing unnecessary and inappropriate barriers to
the siting, permitting, and operation of facilities using the
technologies.
(c) The study must examine post-use polymers and
recoverable feedstocks that are often deposited in landfills to:
(1) 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
(2) determine the manner in which state and local
government officials can promote sustainable materials management,
environmental issues, and a cost-effective system 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 plastics, monomers, or chemicals and chemical
feedstocks, or to generate energy or produce fuels.
(d) Not later than two years after the effective date of
this Act, the commission and the comptroller of public accounts
shall complete the study under this section and report findings and
recommendations to the legislature and the governor.
(e) This section expires September 1, 2021.
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 September 1, 2019.