SB 367 - AS AMENDED BY THE SENATE

02/24/2022 0789s

2022 SESSION

22-2965

08/11

SENATE BILL 367

AN ACT relative to the regulatory status of advanced recycling and manufacturing facilities.

SPONSORS: Sen. Avard, Dist 12; Sen. Watters, Dist 4; Sen. Hennessey, Dist 1; Sen. Bradley, Dist 3; Sen. Soucy, Dist 18; Sen. French, Dist 7; Sen. Cavanaugh, Dist 16; Rep. Pearl, Merr. 26; Rep. Potucek, Rock. 6

COMMITTEE: Energy and Natural Resources

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ANALYSIS

This bill regulates advanced recycling and manufacturing facilities.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

02/24/2022 0789s 22-2965

08/11

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Two

AN ACT relative to the regulatory status of advanced recycling and manufacturing facilities.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 New Paragraphs; Definitions. Amend RSA 149-M:4 by inserting after paragraph I the following new paragraphs:

I-a. "Advanced recycling" means a manufacturing process for the conversion of post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks into basic hydrocarbon raw materials, feedstock chemicals, and other products like waxes and lubricants through processes that include pyrolysis, gasification, depolymerization, catalytic cracking, reforming, hydrogenation, solvolysis, and other similar technologies. The recycled products produced at advanced recycling facilities include, but are not limited to monomers, oligomers, plastics, plastics and chemical feedstock basic and unfinished chemicals, waxes, lubricants, coatings, and other basic hydrocarbons. For the purposes of this chapter, "advanced recycling" shall not be considered solid waste management, solid waste processing, waste processing, treatment, incineration, or combustion.

I-b. "Advanced recycling facility" means a facility that receives, stores, and converts post use polymers and recovered feedstock it receives using advanced recycling. An advanced recycling facility shall be considered a manufacturing facility. For the purposes of this chapter, "advanced recycling facilities" shall not be considered facilities, solid waste facilities, solid waste management facilities, waste management facilities, processing/treatment facilities, solid waste collection, storage, and transfer facilities, processing facilities, treatment facilities, or incinerators.

2 Definition of Certified Waste-Derived Product. Amend RSA 149-M:4, II-a to read as follows:

II-a. "Certified waste-derived product" means a constituent of solid waste which is no longer regulated as a solid waste when certified by the department to be recyclable for its original use or alternate uses and which poses no greater risk to the environment, public health, and safety than exists by producing, distributing, using, or disposing comparable products which are not waste-derived. Products derived from advanced recycling shall not be considered waste-derived products or require certification as waste-derived products.

3 New Paragraph; Depolymerization; Definitions. Amend RSA 149-M:4 by inserting after paragraph V the following new paragraph:

V-a. "Depolymerization" means a manufacturing process where post-use polymers are broken into smaller molecules such as monomers and oligomers or raw, intermediate, or final products, plastics and chemical feedstock basic and unfinished chemicals, waxes, lubricants, coatings, and other basic hydrocarbons.

4 New Paragraph; Gasification; Definitions. Amend RSA 149-M:4 by inserting after paragraph IX-a the following new paragraph:

IX-b. "Gasification" means a manufacturing process through which recovered feedstocks are heated and converted into a fuel and gas mixture in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere and the mixture is converted into valuable raw materials and intermediate and final products, including but not limited to, plastic monomers, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, plastic and chemical feedstock and other basic hydrocarbons that are returned to economic utility in the form of raw materials and products.

5 New Paragraph; Post-Use Polymer; Definitions. Amend RSA 149-M:4 by inserting after paragraph XV the following new paragraph:

XV-a. "Post-use polymer" means a plastic to which all of the following apply:

(a) The plastic is derived from any industrial, commercial, agricultural, or domestic activities.

(b) It is not mixed with solid waste or hazardous waste onsite or during processing at an advanced recycling facility.

(c) The plastic's use or intended use is as a feedstock for the manufacturing of plastic and chemical feedstock other basic hydrocarbons, raw materials, or other intermediate products or final products using advanced recycling.

(d) The plastic has been sorted from solid waste and other regulated waste but may contain residual amounts of solid waste such as organic material and incidental contaminants or impurities such as paper labels and metal rings.

(e) The plastic is processed at a advanced recycling facility or held at such facility prior to processing.

6 New Paragraphs; Pyrolysis; Recovered Feedstock; Definitions. Amend RSA 149-M:4 by inserting after paragraph XVIII the following new paragraphs:

XVIII-a. "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 materials and intermediate and final products, including but not limited to plastic monomers, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, plastic and chemical feedstock and other basic hydrocarbons, that are returned to economic utility in the form of raw materials or products.

XVIII-b. "Recovered feedstock" means one or more of the following materials that has been processed so it may be used as feedstock in an advanced recycling facility:

(a) Post-use polymers.

(b) Materials for which the United States Environmental Protection Agency has made a non waste determination pursuant to 40 C.F.R. 241.3(c), or has otherwise determined are feedstocks and not solid waste.

(d) Recovered feedstock is not mixed with solid waste or hazardous waste onsite or during processing at an advanced recycling facility.

7 Solid Waste; Definition. Amend RSA 149-M:XXII to read as follows:

XXII. "Solid waste" means any matter consisting of putrescible material, refuse, residue from an air pollution control facility, and other discarded or abandoned material. It includes solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community activities. For purposes of this chapter, it does not include hazardous waste as defined in RSA 147-A:2; solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows; cut or uprooted tree stumps buried on-site with local approval if required, provided that such burial locations are not located within 75 feet of any drinking water supply; municipal and industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under section 402 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended; source, special nuclear or by-product material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 , as amended; [or] septage or sludge as defined in RSA 485-A:2, IX-a and XI-a; or post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks converted at an advanced recycling facility or held at such facility prior to conversion.

8 New Paragraph; Solvolysis; Definition. Amend RSA 149-M:4 by inserting after paragraph XXII the following new paragraph:

XXII-a. "Solvolysis" means a manufacturing process through which post-use polymers are purified with the aid of solvents, while heated at low temperatures and/or pressurized to make useful products, allowing additives and contaminants to be removed. The products of solvolysis include monomers, intermediates, and valuable chemicals and raw materials. The process includes but is not limited to hydrolysis, amylolysis ammonoloysis, methanolysis and gycolysis.

9 New Subdivision; Regulation of Advanced Recycling. Amend RSA 149-M by inserting after section 61 the following new subdivision:

Regulation of Advanced Recycling

149-M:62 Regulation of Advanced Recycling.

I. The department shall regulate advanced recycling facilities as manufacturing facilities. An advanced recycling facility and the products and by-products of advanced recycling shall be subject to applicable statutes and departmental rules relative to air, water, waste and land use. The department may enter and inspect any advanced recycling facility to determine whether storage of materials prior to advanced recycling is a nuisance or poses a threat to the environment. The department may utilize its enforcement authorities under RSA 149-M:15 to require abatement of the nuisance or threat if found.

II. Products of advanced recycling shall not be considered “waste-derived products” or “refuse-derived fuel” and shall not be subject to the provisions of this chapter and rules created under its authority relating to waste-derived products and refuse-derived fuel, including but limited to the certification provisions of Env-Sw 1500.

III. Advanced recycling facilities shall give consideration to utilizing post-use polymers and recovered feedstocks generated within the state.

10 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.