Utah passes advanced recycling legislation

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has signed H.B. 493 into law, which provides solid waste management amendments, including legislation that regulates advanced recycling facilities as manufacturing rather than as solid waste.

According to the legislation, which was sponsored by Utah Rep. Tim Jimenez and Utah Sen. Keith Grover, the term “advanced recycling” means a manufacturing process that converts postuse polymers or recovered feedstock into basic raw materials, chemicals or advanced recycling products using technology, including pyrolysis, gasification, depolymerization, catalytic cracking, reforming, hydrogenation, solvolysis or chemolysis. The legislation states that advanced recycling does not include incineration of plastics, energy recovery processes or product sold as a fuel.

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Additionally, it states that an “advanced recycling facility” is considered a manufacturing facility that is registered with the state’s Division of Waste Management and Radiation Control; that receives, stores and converts postuse polymers or recovered feedstock using advanced recycling; that is subject to applicable Department of Environmental Quality manufacturing regulations for air, water, waste and land use; and for which the feedstock received by the manufacturing facility is source separated, diverted or recovered from municipal or other waste streams before being accepted at the facility. It defines “advanced recycling product” as a recycled product that is produced at an advanced recycling facility, including a monomer, an oligomer, a plastic, a chemical feedstock, a basic and unfinished chemical, a wax, a lubricant, a coating or an adhesive.

According to a news release from the Washington-based American Chemistry Council (ACC), Utah is the 22nd state in the country to adopt legislation that regulates advanced recycling as manufacturing rather than as solid waste. The ACC says the passage of H.B. 493 will encourage investment in advanced recycling facilities in the state.

“Unique to Utah’s new law is that it recognizes independent, third-party certification systems to trace, measure and verify recycled plastics made from advanced recycling,” says Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics at ACC. “With HB 493’s passage, the United States is another step closer to becoming a global leader in developing a circular economy for plastics.”