WASHINGTON (May 5, 2017) – The Florida House and Senate this week passed Resource Recovery and Management (HB335). 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 energy recovery:
“The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Plastics Division welcomes the unanimous passage of HB 335—first-of-its-kind legislation that will make Florida a welcoming environment for innovative businesses that convert post-use non-recycled plastics into fuels, chemicals and chemical intermediates.
We’re thrilled to see legislation that attracts new innovative businesses and supports the creation of new jobs by treating post-use plastics as the energy-rich resources they are by classifying them as equivalent to “recovered materials” and not as “waste.” In addition, HB335 ensures manufacturing facilities that convert these post-use plastics into liquid fuels, chemicals, waxes and lubricants are not wrongly classified as solid waste management facilities. It also facilitates recognition that the conversion of post-use plastics into these valuable products will count as “recycling” and contribute to meeting Florida’s 75% recycling goal.
Traditional recycling of plastics continues to increase in Florida and around the nation. However, there are economic barriers to recycling 100 percent of any material. New technologies, such as pyrolysis and gasification, are enabling manufacturers to recover more of the energy embodied in plastics.
Florida recycles nearly 7.4 million tons of municipal solid waste annually. Converting Florida’s non-recycled plastics into energy could provide enough fuel to power more than 500,000 cars every year. We applaud Representative Clemons and Senator Perry for sponsoring this much needed legislation and urge Governor Scott to sign it.