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ARTICLE · 23 NOVEMBER 2020

Pennsylvania 'Advanced Recycling' Bill Seeks To Keep Single-Use Plastics Out Of Landfills

Ballard Spahr LLP
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The Pennsylvania legislature is close to enacting House Bill 1808. Already approved by the Pennsylvania House, the measure could benefit an emerging industry known as Advanced Recycling that diverts

United StatesEnvironment
Lorene L. Boudreau
Lorene L. Boudreau
Randall J. Towers
Randall J. Towers
Marybeth Orsini
Marybeth Orsini
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The Pennsylvania legislature is close to enacting House Bill 1808. Already approved by the Pennsylvania House, the measure could benefit an emerging industry known as Advanced Recycling that diverts single-use plastics—such as candy wrappers, chip bags, and shopping bags—from the waste stream by classifying the recycling of such materials as manufacturing instead of waste processing.

The Upshot

  • Supporters of the bill maintain that the change would encourage continued investment and innovation in advanced recycling technologies while preserving diminishing landfill space.
  • The bill would amend the Solid Waste Management Act to classify post-use plastics as raw materials for manufacturing instead of waste, following the utilization of advanced recycling technologies—a thermal decomposition process called "pyrolysis." Pyrolysis is an attractive technology to some because it is a closed-loop alternative to incineration and does not create any air emissions.

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