By: Thompson of Brazoria (Senate Sponsor - Hancock) H.B. No. 1953
         (In the Senate - Received from the House April 16, 2019;
  April 17, 2019, read first time and referred to Committee on
  Natural Resources & Economic Development; April 25, 2019, reported
  favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 10, Nays 0; April 25, 2019,
  sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
 
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, or chemical
  feedstock or 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 hazardous waste management
  facility, 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, electronic 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)  pyrolysis or gasification; 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 then cooled,
  condensed, and converted into a valuable raw, intermediate, or
  final product, including a plastic, monomer, chemical, wax,
  lubricant, or chemical feedstock or 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 hazardous waste management facility, 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 commission or 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 of 1976 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 of 1976, as amended (42 U.S.C. Section 6901 et seq.);
  or
                           (iv)  post-use polymers or recoverable
  feedstocks processed through pyrolysis or gasification that do not
  qualify as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and
  Recovery Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. Section 6901 et seq.); 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 of 1976 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 that do not
  qualify as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and
  Recovery Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. Section 6901 et seq.); 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. (a)  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, or chemical feedstock or crude
  oil, diesel, gasoline, diesel and gasoline blendstock, home heating
  oil, ethanol, or another fuel.
         (b)  The recycling and reuse of post-use polymers and
  recoverable feedstocks classified as hazardous waste under federal
  law are subject to the federal hazardous waste recycling
  requirements.
         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 hazardous solid waste management
  facility or a solid waste facility authorized under this chapter,
  as appropriate, 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.  As soon as practicable after the effective date
  of this Act, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall
  adopt rules necessary to implement the changes in law made by this
  Act.
         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.
 
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